Beyond Legend
by B1tt3rb33f
Summary: Every legend has their own story. Every hero has their own aims. But this legend is different; a hero who saved the world, treated as a villain. Thus begins the story of the True Descendant. Rated M for bad language, use of alcohol, suggestive themes, and extreme violence.
1. Chapter 1: The Fire

**Author's Note: Hello, readers. My name is B1tt3rb33f. This is my very first story, and I hope you all enjoy it. This story is rated M, as seen in the summary above (if you're on desktop mode) but contains _no lemons_. Only some romance, and some innuendos. I know it looks daunting to read, but I encourage you to read the whole story. You may be inspired or like what you see. **

**This is the first story in a series that I'm planning called the Legend Series.** **If you enjoy this story, be sure to check out my other stories (that I haven't updated in a while, but still) and if you're an Earthbound fan or just want to see the other side of this series, check out my other story, the PSI Saga which will be updated _eventually_...!**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own the rights to the canon characters that are mentioned in this story, like Natsu or Red. Read and review, (be nice with the reviews, that means no hate) and share this story with those you know.**

 **So without further ado, I now present: "Beyond Legend".**

* * *

 _Prologue_

 _Cerulean City, May 17th, 10 years prior_

Cerulean City. A calm, thriving city of passion intertwined with the essence of water that it was just so built off of. With sometimes a busy environment comes a balance of a relaxing lifestyle. Home to the Kanto Region's second gym, with Route 25 just to the north, always packed with energetic trainers ready to test out their skills in battle with their beloved Pokémon. Cerulean Cave just to the west of the city seemed to give a rather opposite, but never negative vibe of adventure and mystery, a mystic cave said to have been there since ancient times.

This day was just like any other, the sky blue and beautiful with the right balance of clouds granting shade to the land below. A soothing spring breeze's gentle fingers ran through the waving grass, the sign of present vitality throughout the land, creating equilibrium and peace.

An equilibrium destined to be short-lived.

The winds grew stronger and forced the blades of sharp tall grass nearly horizontal as sounds of quick footsteps and rustling wings accompanied by the rhythmic inhale and exhale became audible from the exit of Route 4 into Cerulean City. Two beings, a woman at an average height and a dragon/man with an ignited tail, large wings and orange skin could be seen running in panic for their lives, chased by dark, ominous clouds swooping in from the west. If one could take a guess, they would hypothesize that the thundering storm clouds perhaps adopted a mind of its own. This was not a far-off guess, as this unnatural being was controlled by a large group of bandits along the ground, far away, who seemed to be chasing after these two.

As the two people rushed into the city, the regular folks looked at the two as if they had lost their minds, but then the man called out at the top of his voice:

"EVERYONE! THIS IS AN EMERGENCY! FIND SHELTER QUICKLY!" Everyone recognized the man's well-known voice, and with one glance at the mob of bandits not far behind the two, all rushed into their homes and sought low shelter immediately, hiding in their basements, under tables and chairs, in cupboards, anywhere they could escape this insane party of bandits.

"HURRY! THERE'S NO TIME!" shouted the dragon to a few stragglers.

"Izzy, run into the cave and don't wait for me. I can hold them back."

"No! Jerry, you saw what they did! They'll rip you apart! They'll kill you!"

"Izzy, please. Listen. Have faith in me, okay? I know what I failed to do in the past. I won't let that happen again. Okay? I promise. I'll catch up with you in a bit if things get too out of hand," assured the dragon named Jerry.

"B-but..." stammered Izzy.

"Just go! Make sure he stays safe too!" Jerry referred to the tiny little three-month-old baby clutched in Izzy's arms, who, despite all the din, only stirred, but never woke. Izzy soothed the baby with her gentle touch and escaped into the cave. Meanwhile, Jerry transformed into his dragon form, then grew in size, changing colors to have blue flames emitting from his tail and mouth, and dark gray skin. Ready and facing the crowd, he sharpened his claws and glared at the rumbling mob, then...

"This won't be nearly enough... I'll have to evolve once more. Giga... Evolution!" With as much energy as he could gather, Jerry evolved further, this time his skin turning a sleek black, then his fire adopting a much lighter blue color. His arms grew larger and flames burst from his wrists, and then a horn grew on his head between his other two horns as if combining both Mega Evolutions of Charizard into this next evolution.

The clash of the mob with this super being was terrific. The bloodshed of the army of crazed mages and mind controlled soldiers came in abundance; dead bodies and severed parts lay all over, but with a great flash, they all disappeared into oblivion. Despite this, however, the army was enormous and never seemed to cease, like a constant flowing river. Though the comparison of sides may have seemed unfair at first; Jerry up against an entire army, one could not simply underestimate the power of this entity's soul.

Holding back an army was proven to be tough, despite the amount of power that Jerry possessed, and he was quite worn out after the third wave from the army. After this wave, however, he had a window of time before the next and hurriedly rushed into the cave to find Izzy waiting, ducked down to protect the baby who still hadn't woken to the awful ruckus outside.

"Are you alright?" asked Jerry, who was panting heavily, sweat dripping profusely from his forehead. Izzy nodded, the sign for Jerry to put the escape plan into action.

"I should be asking you the same, though. I don't care how powerful you are, you could've died out there! I saw! There were moments when you almost got killed! And look at all your cuts and bruises! Look at yourself, you're dripping blood everywhere!" cried Izzy as they ran through the cold, dark cave. Shouts and heavy footsteps could be heard from the entrance, chasing after the two as they traversed deeper into the cave.

"Izzy, stop worrying about me! Please!" As he spoke, they came to a stop briefly.

"What is it? What's wrong?"

"I feel like they might know about the other entrance to the cave and might be waiting for us there. Now, I don't have enough Magic Energy to teleport us to Sinnoh because you know, Magic Energy doesn't replenish here as quickly, but I have almost enough for one more Dimension Shift. Just a few more minutes, and we'll be out of the cave. And if things get bad, then you know what to do." Jerry pulled out a Pokéball and handed it off to Izzy, who clutched it in her hand, shrunk it down, and pocketed it.

"What if Magisia shows up? I won't be able to get away then! Then you'll be-"

"Izzy. Izzy, shh..." Jerry whispered. "Hush. It's going to be fine. Even if you don't think it will be, it will. Trust me. I _will_ stop him."

"What if... what if they murder you? Like everyone else in the Legion? What'll become of you...?" Izzy's words became more and more slurred the harder she sobbed, tears pouring down her cheeks endlessly.

"If that happens, I'll always be watching over you. Don't worry. I have faith that you'll raise Vincent up to be a leader, just like his name means." Jerry, with a normal, soft hand, caressed the baby's face with his backhand, causing the baby to smile a bit, recognizing the touch from his father.

The shouts and heavy stomping boots drew nearer. Instantly, Jerry and Izzy snapped back into reality, forcing them to run from their predator that was right on their tail.

Through many turns and twists of the labyrinth of the cave, the two were able to find the exit, the glorious sunshine of the outside illuminating the exit. It seemed as if they were free...

But as predicted, waiting for them at the exit of the cave were hundreds of identical, brainwashed soldiers with no intention but to seek out and kill every single member of the Charizard Legion.

"Oh no..."

"Oh no is right," spoke a voice from within the crowd. A mage in a long, intricately patterned black cloak with dark blue hair and gray eyes stepped forward. He had an old face, a face of malicious intent and a history of both torturous murders and swift deaths of the past. A face so notorious, the cause of the downfall of almost the entire Charizard Legion.

"Magisia...! Damn you...!"

"Hmph. You two have been on the run for much too long. The Charizard Legion is done for, you may as well give up now. Death is the better option, you filthy... pretend hero."

"Who's the one pretending here again? Remind me. Oh wait, that's right. It's none other than YOU! GIVE IT UP, ELEMENTIA, YOU COWARD! I KNOW YOU'RE IN THERE!"

"Just for that, I'll make your death far more unbearable. I'll torture you in the worst way possible before your inevitable doom. Then, I'll kill your wife _and_ your child so that the legacy of the Charizard Legion will be no more!"

"You... sick bastard... what kind of, quote-unquote, 'hero' talks of killing women and children with such a serious face...?! You're not even human. You're... you're below human! You're a monster! You're a demon! You're Death itself!"

"And? Your point being? Exactly. None, for you have no point. There is no point to this conversation, or better yet, there's no point to your existence, for you shall be dead soon. Men, seize them. And the baby."

" _NOOO!_ " Izzy cried, but instantly a hand clamped down on her mouth, muffling her scream. She stomped her foot down on the soldier's foot and pushed him out of the way as she tried to grab baby Vincent, who still hadn't woken to a single sound, but was now being held captive, separate from his mother, who wailed for her life as she watched her baby forced away from her. Jerry was forced onto his knees, hands behind his head, as Magisia circled around him and mocked him.

"You really thought you could escape from the Elemental Army? You fool!" Magisia slapped Jerry across the face, hard, and spat on him. He motioned for a chainsaw to be brought in, and they forced Izzy to watch as the saw cut deep into the flesh of her beloved husband, making a shower of blood that rained everywhere, tearing apart the guts that spilled out, painting the grass the deepest red hue.

"This is the last thing you'll see before you die. Don't worry, we'll kill you last, so you can watch us tear your son to pieces as well. Like father, like son...!" smiled Magisia, who acted as a shield for Izzy, allowing the blood to splash upon his back, but still making sure that Izzy could see every organ and bone torn to shreds by the chainsaw, bloody muscles and tendons flying out from the spinning blade and hitting many soldiers. Soon, all that was left was the head, but when they tore apart the skull, a beam of light shone out, a white light that blinded anyone who dares look upon it. In this diversion, Izzy was able to break free from the soldier's grasps and skillfully locate her baby blindly, with both eyes filled to the brim with salty tears and the light radiating everywhere. An attack was coming, an attack that would kill all of them soon.

With his remaining Magic Energy, Jerry, in spirit, teleported Izzy into the air, where she had no other choice but to send out the Pokémon that she put away, Pidgeot.

"Jerry...!" Izzy's vision was completely blurred by the wall of tears that covered her eyes, dripping down her face like a current.

"Izzy. Take care of Vincent. I have faith that you can do it. Even if this attack doesn't kill Elementia, it'll at least set him back for a while."

"But what do I say to Vincent...? How can I ever tell him that you were killed...? He'll be traumatized! He'll..."

"It's going to be alright. I'll watch over you. I promise. Take care of Vincent, you'll be able to tell him someday. Just give it time. Shh... don't cry... I'll be alright. It didn't even hurt, okay?"

"I don't... believe that..."

"It's alright. It'll be fine. Let me see Vincent." Izzy held baby Vincent out for Jerry, who kissed his face and rubbed his face smoothly.

"Vincent... you'll grow up to be a strong hero one day, I promise. You'll save the world from Elementia and all evil in the world. I know it. Vincent, whose name means leadership and victory... you'll grow up to be a victorious leader one day... Izzy, it's time for me to go. Take care of him and yourself."

"W-wait! Jerry...!" called Izzy. Vincent stirred a bit as Jerry's spirit began to fly away.

"Goodbye."

"J...J-J- ** _JERRYYY!_** " screamed Izzy as Pidgeot soared away, as a golden light from above obliterated every single soldier in a light beam of judgment, crushing Magisia/Elementia's entity and sending him god knows where.

As Jerry's spirit drifted away, Vincent began to fuss about in Izzy's arms, wailing as if he felt his father's spirit depart to the afterlife, as if he could feel the bond breaking in two.

And with that, the Great Charizard was no more.

* * *

 _ **BEYOND LEGEND**_

 _"W-what… are you?!"_

 _I spoke not._

He must be erased.

 _"P-please...! Spare me! Please...!"_

 _My state remained stagnant as I advanced in on the hunter._

 _"Please! I want to live...!"_

 _For the first time during this short-lived fight, I spoke to the opponent._

 _"False." Rushing up to the killer faster than he could react, I held him up by the throat. As I spoke, my hand began to heat up slowly. "You want not life, only my bloodshed on your hand. If you decide not to tell me what happened to her, I will end you and eventually the entire Organization. For one last time, tell me."_

 _He looked as if about to tell me, but incompetently thought he could get away with telling me something besides what I wanted to hear. "Hmph. It's my duty to- AAUUGGHH...!" Heating up my hand a bit more, I melted right through his metal armor covering his neck, and eventually disintegrating the neck as well, causing his head to catch fire until it dislocated entirely from his melted spine and rolled away, hitting the floor and instantly turning to dust._

 _Looking into the red distance toward the ominously looming fortress on the horizon, I set down the decapitated corpse and began my long march toward it._

 _"I'll have to find her by myself then," I muttered, adopting a murderous look in my eye._

Every Legend has their own story, whether dead or alive. When they're dead and gone, they're honored and remembered as a legendary hero. When they're alive, they're known as the hero who saved everyone from destruction and demise. But I've got a question, something you may not have ever thought of.

Do legendary heroes have crazy bounties put on them? As in 900,000,000,000 Jewel?

Exactly. Other legendary heroes aren't faced with the reality that nearly half the population of their planet wants them dead. Other heroes aren't constantly on the run, chased by bounty hunters and assassins as a thank you for saving the world from destruction. They don't know what it's like to be a hero who's treated like a villain.

I can tell you what that's like though, being hunted for being the strongest person in possibly the whole universe. But in order to tell you the whole story, we need to start from the very beginning, how I saved the world in the first place before I became the strongest beyond compare.

 _Twinleaf Town, June 10th, 20XX_

...

My eyes fluttered open slowly, my heart pounded heavily in my chest, the sign of a nightmare I had woken up to. I shut my eyelids and rubbed my fingers over them to clean the blurry layer of film and the crusty buildup in the inner corners of my eyes. I blinked twice more to see clearly and tried to piece together the nightmare that had just occurred, but by this time it was too late, as I had spent the last few seconds waking up and rubbing my eyes. Sighing and climbing out of bed, I slid on a pair of shorts and a t-shirt.

Since I had just woken up, my mouth acquired a foul taste in which I had to wash out in the bathroom across the hall. As I transitioned from my room to the bathroom, my eyes glanced down the hall to Mom's room and the guest room on the left side of the hall right before her room. The door was open, meaning she had been awake. This was also rather odd as well, as I usually woke up before her. This was one of those rare occasions of her being the early bird; this usually meant that she went to bed early, another rare occurrence as she was used to staying up all night watching dramas just barely loud enough for me to hear when I pressed my head down against my pillow. This also meant that she must've had a bad dream, but because I had just woken up from a nightmare, I considered the coincidence to be unlikely.

While rinsing out my dry mouth of all the filthy build-up overnight and brushing my teeth, I was able to recall some of my dream I had the previous night. I didn't know what it meant, but I was with a girl, and she stood by me as we faced a large, evil, towering demon. The demon struck, and my eyes filled with tears as I witnessed the beautiful girl fall before me, catching her last breath before she died of blood loss. I couldn't figure out what any of it meant. It was just a nightmare, but I felt a twinge of sadness for a girl in a dream... why...? I didn't recognize the girl, but I did recall red locks of hair waving up as she fell. Confused, I ran my fingers through my own hair, a head of messy, jet black bed hair, but after taking a brush to it, it seemed fine. I splashed some water on my oily youthful face and stared into the reflection at my red, dragon-like eyes. I smiled briefly at the reflection, happy to be born at least decently handsome, as my lips lifted up to reveal my rather dangerously sharp teeth, much like a dragon's. These were the features of my father, as I was told by my mother, but I recognized her jet black hair in mine, and some of my facial features resembled hers.

Speaking of her, I found her downstairs having tea and reading a newspaper. She looked as if she had been awake for hours, but because she was my mom, that meant that she still looked low-energy. Though she always looked like this, she didn't act like it and I knew from her behaviors that she was the exact opposite; lively and deceptively full of energy. But most of the time she was very relaxed. She was all I knew, basically, aside from a few friends I had. She was almost my whole life and I loved her. She taught me everything I knew up until this point, what some might call homeschooling. This was natural in the Regions, where I lived, specifically in Twinleaf Town, Sinnoh. Most kids were homeschooled, and the really smart ones who went to work for big companies like Silph in Kanto would go to college. I wasn't planning on that; I wanted to be a professional Pokémon trainer that traveled throughout the land, seeking challenges and amazing everyone with my power and skills. The problem was, mom wouldn't let me be a trainer. I had hoped at the legal age of 10 that I would be able to embark on my journey like most kids, but she wanted me to work in a job with her at a boring company that, although paid well, wouldn't spark my interest in any way whatsoever. A boring, normal life filled with no adventure, no action, nothing.

Mom told me stories of Dad, who I never knew because shortly after I was born died in a car accident. When I was little, she told me bedtime stories of a hero he once was, tall tales of how he was a Charizard who learned magic spells and could ravage entire cities, take down entire armies without breaking a sweat. As a gullible little kid, I was inclined to believe such incredible tall tales, but as I grew up, I discovered these tales to be false, and Mom had told me that instead, he worked for Silph Co. in the great office building in Saffron, Kanto. I was heartbroken to find this out, but soon got over this and my mindset became normal and boring.

Mom glanced over at me as I walked into the kitchen. "Good morning, sleepyhead. Did you get a good night's rest?" she spoke in a gentle voice. She was very beautiful for her age; I almost couldn't believe that she was in her late 40's. She had almost no gray hairs, and her face was toned and smooth. Her black hair was silky and braided into a ponytail, and she was fairly tall, but she always said that I got my height from Dad. I _was_ pretty tall for a 14-year-old.

"I slept fine... for the most part," I replied, adding in that last part a few moments later.

"For the most part, huh...?"

"Yeah, I had a weird nightmare. Which is weird, since I haven't had a nightmare for a long time. It was an odd occurrence to have a bad dream." As I said this, she looked as if her heart stopped.

"A... nightmare...? Tell me, what was it about?" she asked slowly.

"It was weird. I was standing next to this girl and everything was dark, and I saw her get killed by a demon or something. I dunno, I can't grasp what it means."

She slowly nodded, taking it in. I saw a rare surprised look on her face, and then she opened her mouth to speak, but then decided against it. As I made myself some breakfast, she continued to read the paper, but I could tell that she wasn't really reading it, because her eyes never moved from one point on the page. A worried look settled in her eyes, and then she decided to speak.

"Vincent, sweetie, you know what we're doing today, right?" she questioned.

"Yeah, you told me last night, that we're going to go visit Dad's grave today," I answered easily.

"Yes. So when you're done eating, let's leave early so we can tend to his grave and then I need to talk to you later. Oh, don't worry, you're not in trouble, I just want to talk to you about something."

I wondered what that "something" could be. I hoped that she would let me go out on a journey, finally, but I didn't get my hopes up too high. In the meantime, I finished eating, so I bounded upstairs and changed into more formal clothes; a white button down shirt with a black tie, and a pair of black dress pants.

I didn't know what information was waiting for me, but I had a feeling that my life would never be the same.


	2. Chapter 2: The Truth

Dad's grave sat on the other side of the lake near our house, Lake Verity. Every year, we would tend to his grave and have a short funeral service. This way, the dirt of the grave never became overgrown with weeds and grass, but sometimes flowers would sprout there, and we would let them remain there. Of course, as the brisk winters swept over the land, the flowers would not remain, but the next year in turn would bring more flowers than before.

The grave had been there probably before the time I was even able to recall memory. The tombstone was a bit faded, but one could still make out the text engraved on the stone which read, "Here lies, The Great Charizard, known to his loved ones as Jerry" and the years he was born and died. Even if I hadn't known him, every time we visited the grave, I felt the worst kind of sadness, growing exponentially as I became older and more self aware. Even though I didn't ever know him, a terribly empty feeling washed over me, as if I had lost my best friend, as if... something was missing, but I didn't know what.

As we walked along to the lake, I noticed Mom was trembling more than usual. Now, it was normal for her to shed a tear, but while we walked, we would usually talk about things, life, about the future, about anything, really. But she hadn't said a single word since we left the house, and I caught a glimpse of her eyes watering up already, but she looked more frustrated than just sad. Frustrated, as if being torn between decision. What decision? What was there to decide, other than what I was thinking, which probably wasn't going to happen?

Mom found it rather difficult to get words out, but she instructed my to lay the bouquet of blue flowers that I was holding and set it on top of the grave. The blue, as Mom had told me before, represented Dad's power. Of course, that was when I believed her tall tales of Dad being more than just a businessman working for a tech company.

"These flowers represent my father, the Great Charizard. May his soul forever..." I paused briefly, because when I was speaking, I felt a tingle, a pulse of some sort rush through me, warming me up on the inside. It was pleasant, but at the same time a bit scary, because I didn't know what was happening for a moment. I didn't know where I was, I didn't know what was going on. I felt... powerful. Melancholy swept over me, causing me to tear up a little, but at the same time, I felt invigorated and full of energy like I never felt before. And if that wasn't enough to get me going, I began to recall more of my dream; the girl I was with, she wore a cap and a bandanna covering her face, so I wasn't able to see her face. I was wearing some kind of coat with a slightly torn scarf that billowed in the wind, and when the demon struck, I dashed forward and punched the monster with all my strength.

"Vincent...? Vincent?" called Mom, which snapped me back into the present.

"Huh...? What happened?" I stood there, realizing that I had been looking down with a blank expression at the grave for possibly minutes.

"You were about to finish saying, 'may his soul forever...'" she reminded.

"Oh, yeah. Yeah, that's right. Uh, may my father's strong soul forever rest... in..." I hesitated, still reflecting on what had just happened, but snapped out of it and finished my sentence. "... peace." Something weird was going on; I felt a vibe I had felt only a few times in the past, and only briefly at that. I glanced over my shoulder at Mom, who had a worried look, more worried than before. I gave her a reassuring smile to have her believe that I was fine, but nothing in her expression changed. Silently, she held out her hand and we made our way back to the house. Naturally, I was a bit scared, as I didn't know what was going through her head. I was worried about everything. To make things less awkward, it seemed, Mom left the house for the day, leaving me to myself at home in my own thoughts.

xxxx

Being left alone in my thoughts is one of the worst things that anyone can ever do to me. When I'm left alone in my thoughts, I discovered that to prevent myself from going insane, music helps calm my nerves and allow me to think more rationally. It would break my heart to say that Mom did this, but fortunately that's not the case. She would never try to corrupt my thoughts, but the crazy man that used to live by us would. Just thinking about that man now makes me angry, but luckily I never saw him again. I remember his name; Lucifer. A twisted name, ugly and vile sounding like some kind of poisonous, rabid animal. He was a deranged asshole, and every night I would go to bed, using the words he used when yelling at me to curse him out, once I learned how to use them correctly.

Lucifer had been living in Twinleaf even before Mom moved into town, and when she did, she described him as a "short balding man with turd brown hair and gold teeth, with a fat nose and flab bulging out from his neck even visible underneath the dense jungle of a lumberjack beard he so proudly owned, a crusty face that couldn't even attract the filthiest of vermin if he tried, with barf-inducing features so vile and disgusting that he drove the mere _stench_ of month old trash ten feet away from him." His hands always remained cold and clammy or most of the time covered in slimy mucus from his constantly dripping pig nostrils. His almost unibrow gave him the appearance of an early homo erectus, and to add to that vibe, he constantly reeked of cigarettes, alcohol, and diarrhea.

Aside from his grotesque features, his behaviors were even shittier than his appearance. Mom told me horror stories of him hitting on her ever since she moved in. At first she didn't want to be rude about his appearance and let him down easy, but Lucifer saw this as her playing hard-to-get and tried hard to get her attention, doing embarrassing things like singing for her in the middle of the town, making her stuff like food, writing her letters, but this obviously drove her away even more, until she told him to stop. Just one word: stop. Yet he persisted, throwing Mom what were supposed to be "sexy" looks, but his face ended up looking like someone took a shit in a mud pile and it dried, only to have it stepped in again. He made a fool out of himself, and he was hurt and angry. He of course had to let everyone know, until it got to the point where he decided that getting drunk and beating his son would look cool and make him appear as a "bad boy" or something stupid like that. All it did was make both me and Mom resent him all the more. He yelled and screamed at his boy, who was about my age at the time, and beat him for any reason whatsoever.

One day, Mom hadn't come home from work yet and I thought it to be a good idea to play in the rain that day. As I was playing, however, I noticed the boy standing out in the rain with nothing but his underwear on, facing the wall of his house and sobbing uncontrollably, his bruised and blood covered back exposed to the rain. I was 7 at the time, and Mom had taught me to love my neighbors as I loved myself. As a naïve and innocent kid, I took this literally and the goodness of my heart reached out to this boy, my literal neighbor, and I invited him into my house. I let him go upstairs into the bathroom and wash off his back, and then I cleaned him off with the gauze that Mom kept under the sink when he was done. I lent him some of my clothes to wear temporarily, I remember I lent him one of my favorite shirts, a black shirt with a split Pokéball emblem and a jagged, blue lightning bolt running diagonally through the Pokéball. It was a bit big for the both of us, but he accepted the shirt graciously and smiled. I didn't know how he was able to smile in such a horrible circumstance, but after that, we got to know each other and became friends.

His name was Jordon, with an O, (I remember him emphasizing that all the time) and he was a bit shorter than me. Upon his head he had locks of burgundy, not like his shitty father. From this, I could tell that his father was (fortunately) his step father, who cheated on his biological mother with many other women. His mother wasn't any better than his step father, and she beat him too. Jordon was only really close to his father, but he one day disappeared and never returned. Then his mother left him with Lucifer, and his corruption began there. This all happened in the span of two years, explained Jordon, but all the while he kept his head up and never gained a negative thought. I never saw him frown, only when his step father made him cry, but other than those times, he never wore a frown and kept his youthful face bright and cheery. He wasn't the brightest, as he wasn't fully homeschooled, but his street smarts were alright. That day when I brought him in from the rain, Mom came home and I asked her if he could sleep over. There was slight hesitation in her answer, but that was only because she didn't know his story at first, and how he wasn't actually that pig's son.

 _"Please Mom? He was standing out in the rain and he was cold! And-and he wasn't homeschooled! Can you teach him?"_ I had said.

 _"Hm… I mean, I would, but considering the… uh,_ circumstances _, I don't know whether his step father will say yes or no."_ She chose her words carefully, not wanting to say anything bad about his step father in case Jordon had a hidden respect for him. Mom was never one to be disrespectful, surprisingly never stepping out of line even when around Lucifer. Speaking of Lucifer, he burst through the door right around this time, as if he actually cared about the well being of his son.

 _"There you are, you little..."_ he began, but once he saw my mom standing there, he straightened himself up as much as he could and smiled politely.

 _"Ah! Good evening, Isabelle! You're looking fine as usual!"_ he snickered. He was a perv, I knew, even if I didn't know the word for it yet.

 _"Do you need something?"_ said Mom as if she was oblivious to the current situation.

 _"Yes, I'm here to take my son home. He really needs a good beating when we get there...!"_ He said towards Jordon, giving him a nasty glare.

 _"Well actually, I was thinking it over, and since my kind son let him in earlier because you made him stand out in the rain,"_ she emphasized this part mostly, but this only made Lucifer glare at me as well. _"Because you made him stand out in the rain, I've decided that it would be alright for him to spend the night here."_

This upset Lucifer very much so. _"What...?! I-I-what?! That's outrageous! Jordon! Get over here this instant! Ooh, when we get home, you'll be in so much trouble..."_ When Jordon heard this, he hid behind my back and shuddered.

Mom seemed to get an idea. _"Alright, how about this? If you let him stay over at our house for a while and allow me to properly homeschool him, I'll give you a kiss. How does that sound?"_

Lucifer thought for a moment, and an sly smile appeared on his ugly mug, which made both me and Mom shudder. Whatever perverted thoughts were going through his head were probably not good, that's to say.

 _"Alright! Aw yeah! How bout that! But you gotta kiss me now! Otherwise I'll just be taking him home."_ Mom was definitely hesitant about this, as she wasn't so enthusiastic about giving a kiss to a pile of shit, but her caring won over her, so she bent down to lucifer's face, but before she could do anything, Lucifer grabbed both of her shoulders and planted the most disgusting, mushy kiss on her lips. Afterward, he left much happier than he was feeling before. Mom, on the other hand, didn't come out of the bathroom for the rest of the evening.

Mom began homeschooling Jordon, and thus Jordon rarely went home. Day by day, he became smarter and grew with us, and our friendship became stronger. We would often take walks out to the lake and skip stones, walk through tall grass and find wild Pokémon, talk about dreams and laugh and play after our homeschooling sessions.

Then the worst thing happened to Jordon and us. Lucifer decided it would be a good idea to corrupt the innocent mind of his stepson's little friend, and he started by acting friendly to me, even though I didn't like him. But one day he lured both of us into his filthy, untidy house. I was worried that he would try to beat us, and I was correct. He hit me over the head with a chair, broke full beer bottles on my head, and rammed my head into the walls, leaving big holes and cracks. Jordon didn't have it much better, and afterward, Lucifer wasn't done with us yet; he decided after a bit of "roughhousing" that we could all become "pals" and have a fun "movie night", but what he showed us wasn't no Bambi. Oh no. He showed us some of the most violent horror movies, forcing us to watch, hitting us with beer bottles if we tried to look away. That day was one of the worst days of my life, the day that began to create the monster inside me. And it wasn't just that day, oh no. This torment and horror continued on for weeks, to the point where I was starting to go insane, and that was exactly what Lucifer wanted. He wanted the purity and childhood innocence taken away from us, and he succeeded in his aims, until one day when he was tormenting us again, Mom had been looking for me and eventually found us being exposed to Lucifer's porn stash against our will, and when she saw this, I saw a side of her that I hadn't ever before witnessed, and that was her furious side. With a hard punch, she hit Lucifer's mole face and caused him to destroy some furniture that he collided with. Mom took both me and Jordon by our hands and took us home and made sure we were both okay, asking us why didn't tell her about this before, to which I told her that Lucifer threatened to beat us to death if we told her. The next day, Mom marched over to Lucifer's house and gave him the most non-disrespectful but yet threatening earful ever, but only verbally respectful. She's one of those people who doesn't follow the rule of "if your neighbor takes your coat, give them your shirt as well". Instead, she taught me a quite different rule of thumb, the "eye for an eye" rule. This, I didn't know would affect my life so much, but just like that, my childhood innocence was taken from me; I was a grown up. Well, basically.

On the very same day, Jordon left us a note, saying that he was running away and we would never see him again. I was down, now that my childhood friend had left us, and a week later, Lucifer also moved out. The house was left surprisingly spotless, clean down to the last dust particle. Mom had decided that she would properly give me "the talk" because the whole traumatizing experience left me confused and afraid of the world, but once I gained understanding and a bit of encouragement from Mom, I was back to living a normal life, trauma-free.

But nothing, and I mean nothing, would be as traumatic as what Mom told me the day we returned from the lake.

xxxx

I had taken a nap, fallen asleep with calming music drifting through my ears. It was quiet enough for me to hear the sound of Mom calling me from my doorway, and then from the side of my bed when I didn't wake up fully.

"Vincent? Sweetie, wake up..." A gentle nudge on the shoulder got me to open my eyes and see mom standing next to my bed in her normal clothes. As I gathered thought and tried to piece reality together, I noticed that she looked about on the verge of tears, but also frustrated and torn. She gave an assuring smile and as I sat up, she hugged me close as if she didn't believe that I existed, and was checking to make sure.

"Mom, are you alright...? I myself was worried, not so much of what had happened earlier because I felt fine, but I was more concerned about Mom's state of being. She may have given an assuring smile, but this alone didn't do much of a good job of masking her emotions.

"I'm fine..." Which translated to the exact opposite. "Come downstairs with me. I have to talk to you about something."

Within minutes, she had me seated at the dining room table and sat herself across from me. This had never happened before, her deliberately sitting directly across from me to talk to me, so I was actually kind of worried.

"I want to know what you're feeling. Can you tell me about that nightmare you had?" questioned Mom with a look as worried as mine.

"I'll tell you what I remember. I remember that I was on a quest with this girl, I couldn't see her face because it was covered with a bandanna, and she had a cap and a ponytail. She was struck by this demon, and... I just couldn't help but feel so sad about this girl I never met but died right in front of me."

Mom nodded, and reached under the table and brought up a shopping bag that I hadn't seen. "I have my own theories, but the one that concerns me the most is my hypothesis that your dream might be a foresight. Tell me. What did the demon look like? Was it big?"

"Yes, it was big. It was very big, towering over both of us. It had this sword and red veins pulsated from its dark body. its face, I wasn't able to make out the details of, but I remember everything was on fire."

Mom nodded even slower than before and struggled to find the words to speak. "First, I'll start by telling you what that meant. You might be wondering why I'm concerned about this, but that's because..." Mom, after a long pause, pushed the words out. "... I had a dream very similar to yours. Very similar. Except it was with your father, and I saw him die again. This is where I have to tell you something that I've hidden from you all this time." At this point, I was shocked to see tears streaming down Mom's face. I had never seen her cry before, because I always knew her as a strong mother who tackled through everything, but this time was different. She had been hurt from something from the past, and now it was taking its toll on her.

"Remember all the tall tales I told you about your father? Well, that day I told you those stories weren't real is because I knew you were smart enough to put two and two together, and I didn't want you knowing yet."

A horrible feeling washed over me, and I prayed to god that she wasn't going to say what I thought she was about to say. When she failed to say anything due to a waterfall of tears streaming down her face, I saved her the trouble by saying what I thought she was trying to tell me. "Don't tell me... were those tales all real?" She could only force herself to nod. "But then... despite how powerful he was, he still died in that accident... wait, that doesn't make any sense... how could a simple car crash kill him?"

"Vincent, sweetie... I think it's time for you to know the truth."

"What... what truth...?" My stomach churned, and I mentally prepared myself for what I was about to hear.

But never in a thousand years could I prepare myself for what was about to be said.

"Vincent... your father didn't die in a car crash. He... he sacrificed himself for us. I witnessed it before my very own eyes... the horror... Vincent, your father was m... m-murdered... torn limb from limb by a chainsaw, guts hacked out of his chest...!" She couldn't even speak for the longest time, as she sobbed heavily into her hands, creating a pool of tears on the table. Loud, unnatural howls erupted from my mother's covered mouth as she remembered the terrible way that Dad met his end.

But at this point, I could care less about what Mom felt. I cared not for the tears she wept, because I couldn't even bring out my own. It was a matter beyond even tears. At first, I couldn't even think, but then I let her words sink in, then the cogs in my mind began turning. I was sad for a second, but that was all thrown out the window as the anger of the next door abuse long past, the long pent up anger of my childhood returned, but now fresh and alive in a new soul. My rage awakened, burning hot and bright.

"Mom! Why didn't you tell me?! WHY?!" I practically screamed.

"I-I didn't want you to be traumatized-"

"TRAUMATIZED?! _AS IF THAT'S NOT THE UNDERSTATEMENT OF THE CENTURY!_ " I didn't take into account Mom's feelings, but I didn't even care at the moment.

"Listen sweetie, I understand that-" I didn't want to hear what she was going to say; I was too angry.

"NO! YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND, **_ANYTHING!_** " I hollered. At this point, I didn't care about her feelings; I was too angry to notice. "... I trusted and believed everything you ever said, but you don't understand what that means to me! You... _AUUGH!_ I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU! WHY WOULD YOU HIDE SOMETHING SO IMPORTANT FROM ME?!" As I yelled, I was so angry that I didn't even notice that my habit came out.

"Vincent... you..." whispered Mom as I stood there panting.

"Yes. I know. I burst into flames when I'm angry." This was true, as I stood before Mom, flames waving from every part of my body.

"That's not it, though. I know why you're so angry. I understood why. You were there when your father died, but you were so young that you couldn't possibly remember. But you only cried when your father died."

"What... what are you saying now...?! WHY WOULD I BELIEVE ANYTHING YOU SAY AFTER _THAT?!_ " I cried.

"Listen! I understand why you're so upset! You... shared a special bond with your father, not just family wise, but because you're his son!"

"WAY TO BE _OBVIOUS!_ WHAT ELSE IS NEW!?"

"No, you don't understand..."

"I UNDERSTAND FULLY!" I couldn't contain myself anymore, and with my special power, I cloaked my hand in flames and slammed it down onto the table, breaking it in two.

"While I passed down my Steel Arts to you, your father also passed his special art down to you... his Fire Arts. Because of that, you have a direct link to him; you're not just his son, but his descendant."

"I don't even know... WHAT THAT MEANS!" I growled, causing my mother to recoil.

"Your Fire Arts... they're not only a power passed down from your father, but also a forbidden art that has been passed down to the leaders of the Charizard Legion. You were the next leader of the Charizard Legion, and that's why your father named you Vincent, or part of the reason. Vincent means a 'victorious leader' or 'victory', but that's also because… there lived a Charizard from long ago, known as the True Charizard, who created the Fire Arts, and passed it down to his descendants for centuries. When you were born, your father believed that you possessed the power of the True Charizard from long ago. You were to prove that you were the True Descendant, but... I didn't want you to because I wanted the Charizard Legion to die out so that they wouldn't chase after us anymore. I did it for your sake! I... I did it because I care about you!"

"You... you don't understand what, how that affected me! You crushed my dreams when you told me that I couldn't be a trainer! You made me think that my powers would go to waste, sitting in some boring office building for the rest of my life!"

"Sweetie, that's what this bag is for." Mom reached inside the bag and pulled out a hat; a hat that trainers wore, a Pokémon trainer snapback hat. "Since I can't hide it anymore, I'm going to let you be what you've always wanted to be. A hero that will save the world. At first, I wanted the Charizard Legion to die out quietly, but in the dream I had, Jerry, your father, told me that some members of the Charizard Legion were still alive, traveling the world. He told me in the dream... to finally tell you the truth, and..." When she paused, she brought up a trainer bag from under the table and a windbreaker jacket. "... I want you to fulfill your destiny now. It was inevitable. That dream that happened, may be a foresight, thus, if you weren't there, then who knows what would become of the world. I know this is what you want to do. And now I want you to follow your dream."

I felt like I could cry, but I couldn't even force myself to, and I was still angry. Without saying a word, I grabbed the backpack from Mom and then turned and ran upstairs to pack stuff for my journey. I couldn't feel excitement, though, because I was still trying to process what happened, the full story.

"How could she...?!" I muttered angrily to myself. "I'll... I'll kill whoever murdered Dad...! After all, it's an eye for an eye, but this time, it's not just an eye for an eye... they took my father's life, I won't just kill the person who killed him, no. I'll kill everyone wo was involved. I'll kill everyone who had anything to do with the matter. And then when all is said and done..." I wasn't sure of what to do next. At the moment, I just stood there with a pile of clothes on my bed, confused and hurt and angry.

"Sweetie...?" I heard Mom's voice from behind me, but I didn't turn around to face her. When I didn't turn around, she came up next to me and looked at my face, the burning red ball of rage that I had become.

"I know this is a lot in one moment, and I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."

"I'll... I'll get them... I SWEAR I WILL!" I growled, vibrating intensely. Mom didn't speak for a second afterward, but had a worried look on her face nonetheless.

"I know what I taught you, but I think it'd be best to leave it alone." Mom sighed and placed her hand on my back. "I know you're angry. I know you hate the person who killed your father. But now I'm saying, if you want to avenge your father, that's alright, but it's best to leave it alone."

"NO! IT'S... _NOT!_ " I yelled. "While you're talking about forgiveness and all, that person who murdered Dad may well be on the loose as we speak..."

"No, he's not. When your father died, he unleashed a final attack that eliminated everyone that was around him. The person who murdered your father, well, he wasn't killed, as possibly evidenced from those dreams we had, but if we don't chase after him, then he won't go after us."

"That's not the point! Look at Lucifer, for instance. Sorry for bringing him up. He persisted. He was relentless, never gave up doing what he did best; being a stupid, pervy dumbass. What makes you think that the murderer isn't also relentless? Based on just the example of Lucifer, do you think murderers relent? Do evil people relent?" Mom was lost for words, clearly not having thought of that.

"Huh? Do evil people relent? If someone wanted to wipe out half the population of the universe, would they relent?" I persisted.

"I know where you're coming from, but I mean to say..."

"What? What could you say that could crush my soul even more? How can you possibly crush me even more?"

Immediately, my mother began bawling her eyes out once again. At first I was angry because she wasn't answering me, but then I took a second to think and really understood why she was crying so much. Not just because she witnessed Dad's death, not just because she knew that I was absolutely horrified and traumatized by the truth, but because she knew what my intentions would be after telling me all this, and realized that what she did. Mom had probably been thinking about it all day at work, and knew that I would be absolutely crushed and lash out. Thus, she resolved the issue within herself as hard as it was to let me go. The issue was not how I would react to the truth or whether I could handle it or not, but rather that she had been delaying the inevitable and was scared to let me face the murderer by myself in the high possibility that I would be end up like Dad.

"... Mom…" I felt tears starting to come on, but I tried my best to suck it up and not act so pathetic. "I... alright. I shouldn't have said that. I don't want to hurt you; I don't want to hurt anyone."

"I... know that..." sniffed Mom. "I just want what's best for you... if you want to avenge your father, then by all means, do that if it satisfies you! I just... can't bear to crush your dreams. That was one of the hardest decisions for me to make..."

"I get it; I understand. But although I don't want to hurt anyone, although you don't want me to go after them, at the end of the day... it's my decision. I get it now. I get what you were trying to say." There was an awkward pause as I thought of something to say.

"I'm... sorry Mom."

"No, you shouldn't be sorry...! You have a right to be angry! I understand you. I remember once..." Mom started to say something, but then decided against saying something she might regret. "N-never mind. I should be the one apologizing. I'm... I'm so sorry for hiding everything from you! I know your childhood may not have been the cleanest or the most perfect, well, quite opposite thanks to..." Mom seemed to gag a bit, but I new what she was going to say. "Uh, never mind that too. But you're practically grown up now, so I figured you could handle the truth about your father."

"I'm sorry for, well, lashing out, and uh, breaking the table," I muttered sheepishly.

"That's alright, and I was thinking about getting another table anyway." After a moment, Mom pulled me into a tight, motherly hug that assuaged and quenched the raging flames of my irate heart. "I'm sorry, sweetie..." she cried softly.

"Mom, stop apologizing. It's not your fault. It's someone _else's_ ," I replied with emphasis, shaking a bit and tensing my muscles, but soon Mom's warm hug relaxed all feelings of hate, and my anger subsided.

"I don't want you to be angry. I know you can't help it, but that's because you're growing. You must learn to control it."

"I'll try. I will."

Once the hug broke up, Mom pulled up the bag with all the stuff in it and pulled up a shoebox with the brand Gyaradidas on it, along with the hat and jacket and bag.

"This is what you've always wanted, right?"

"Yeah. It is. This is it," I replied, sliding the jacket on, then the backpack, the shoes, and finally, the hat. I felt awesome as a surge of energy rushed through my soul, kindling a new fire in my heart. I knew that what lay ahead of me was a rough road; a road full of obstacles and destruction and rage, but I would honor my father and continue his and the Legion's legacy.

"Are you heading out now, sweetie?"

"Yeah. I have a long way ahead of me..." I clenched my fist and a hot flame burst forth from it, a flame of a heart so passionate, so wild, yet to be tamed. "But I'll be back someday. For starters, I'll try to become stronger by taking on the Elite Four of Sinnoh. I know it won't be easy, but I've wanted to do it my whole life. Now's my opportunity." As I spoke to Mom, we had started walking downstairs to the door, and I was standing in the doorway, giving Mom one last hug before I left.

I had no idea what lay ahead of me, I had no idea how strong I would get, or how much I would change through the years. I didn't know _what_ I would get myself into. If that dream I had was a foresight, I would have to push all my limits, to go beyond. But I was willing to endure all of it, for Dad, for Mom, for myself, for the entire Charizard Legion...

… and most importantly, for the world.


	3. Chapter 3: The Battle

If I was gonna avenge my dad, I figured that I would have to get stronger. I would have to stand above all other trainers. That would prove to be really difficult, but I was determined enough to actually do it.

Out on Route 201, I saw a few people walking around in the tall grass, some of them playing with their Pokémon, some training. I walked along for a bit, smelling the fresh pine smell, taking in the beautiful, lush, green scenery of Route 201. I jumped a downward ledge thinking how exciting my adventure would be as I moved onto Sandgem Town, whistling a merry tune.

"The setting sun sure looks beautiful over the trees," I mumbled as I walked along through the town. It was a moderately small town with a Pokémon Center, a Mart, and some other houses. To the north was Route 202, and to the south was the coast. I started traveling south to see Sandgem's coast, but there wasn't much to do, because I didn't know how to swim. I did, however wade over to a little island and just sat down, watching the sunset in the west. How long I sat there, I have no clue, but I sat until the sun dropped over the horizon and bright stars began to fill the night sky.

Once it got dark, I set out for Route 202. I noticed that there were a lot of trainers out, despite the fact that it was nighttime.

"I guess these people train 24/7, huh?" I muttered to myself as I walked along. "Then so will I."

I walked up to a trainer who was playing with his Bidoof happily. Bidoof was pretty common in these areas, so it wasn't a surprise to see. I was itching for a fight, so I walked over to him and I shouted, "You! I challenge you to a battle! In order for me to become the strongest, I will challenge every Pokémon trainer in the world, starting with you!"

The youngster was a little taken aback by the sudden request and the volume of my voice, but he seemed to be rather excited.

"Huh! I was hoping for a trainer to come along," he grunted with a grin on his face. "Sure beats having to fight these boring-ass trainers around here every day, all the time. But I'd be more than happy to challenge you. Go, Bidoof! Show this trainer your strength!" He pointed to me and Bidoof ran to face me on the field.

"Bidoof!" cried Bidoof standing there, looking full of energy. He looked at me, obviously waiting for me to send out a Pokémon for him to fight.

He waited…

…And waited…

"Uh, dude, aren't you gonna send out your Pokémon?" asked the youngster anxiously. A big grin appeared on my face.

"Send out my Pokémon?" I laughed. "I almost forgot. I don't have any Pokémon!" A glint of moonlight flashed in my eye as I said, "I am half-Pokémon." I stood in a battle stance and ignited a ball of flame in my hands. The youngster looked astounded.

When I was about 5 years old, I discovered that I had a special type of power I had called Fire Arts. I had inherited it from my father, who had the Fire Arts before me. But it wasn't only My dad who passed down a special power to me; so did my mom, who had Steel Arts in her blood. Although my mom was human, she had steel bones from her Steel Arts, which she passed down to me. I didn't acquire any features of a Charizard, save from some very sharp teeth and blood red eyes, but no wings, not even a tail. Only eyes, teeth, and powers.

My power at heart are Fire and Steel Arts, making me a Fire/Steel half-Pokémon. I know, it confuses even me to this day.

"So what are you waiting for? Come at me."

"B-Bidoof, use Tackle!" Bidoof charged forward. I just moved out of the way.

I readied a ball of fire in my hand as I dodged the Bidoof's attack.

"Flame… Ball!" I shouted as I used my special move. The ball of fire hit Bidoof head-on. Bidoof then charged at me, knocking me over. I swiped at Bidoof and charged another Flame Ball. This time, Bidoof was knocked out and the youngster returned Bidoof to its Pokéball.

"Wow, this is the power that was in me this whole time…" I muttered.

The youngster just stood there for a second. Then he slowly walked up to me and handed me some prize money.

"Here, you win. I never knew that a trainer could wield such power by himself," he said, amazed.

"Kid, I feel the same way. Thanks." I replied. It felt pretty good to finally unleash my power. I had kept the powers to myself this whole time, but I never knew that I was capable of that much power.

I walked along the moonlit route. A few Pokémon tried jumping out at me, but I fainted them by using my fire power. A few more trainers spotted me as well. I was relaxed for a few minutes, until a girl, a lass, spotted me.

"When our eyes meet, we battle!" she exclaimed.

"Ha! Your Pokémon don't stand a chance against me. Heads up, I got fire powers! So come at me with all you've got!"

"Alright! Go, Bidoof!" The same plump little beaver-mouse-thing burst out of the Pokéball and stood in a battle stance.

"Quick Attack!" Before I could react, Bidoof rushed up to me and kicked me with its powerful legs. In the nuts, too. Mind you, I don't have any steel bones there, so it hurt.

The air was knocked out of me briefly, but I regained my breath and readied my Flame Ball attack. Bidoof didn't see that coming, and was unprepared for when the powerful attack hit it.

"No!" she cried. "Do you think you've won? Get ready for this! Sure it's another Bidoof, but this one's stronger! Go!" With that, another Bidoof appeared, looking fierce.

"Tackle!" Bidoof rushed at me, but went right under my legs and hit a tree behind me. I started to prepare another attack.

"I feel your pain, Bidoof." I released the attack at Bidoof, who turned around just in time to see the Flame Ball rushing at it.

"B-but how? How are you so strong?" asked the lass.

"Let's just say that maybe I'm not the one who's strong, maybe your Pokémon need more training. It's just a suggestion, not that I'm trying to be mean."

"Well, I'll take your word for it and train to become stronger." She handed me some prize money, and I continued on.

Maybe it's not the Pokémon, I thought. Maybe it has to do with how strong I am. I thought about this as I continued forth to fight the rest of the trainers on the route.

I just never knew how strong I would actually get.


	4. Chapter 4: The Rival

After the battle with the youngster, I went on to challenge everyone on Route 202 with Pokémon.

"Damn, that was oddly satisfying," I said as I entered Jubilife City.

Jubilife is a big city. The other day, I only went to the library. I had never actually walked around, so walking through the city streets was new to me, considering that I'd never really been out of Twinleaf Town that much. I walked around for a bit, checking out tall buildings and other cool things, like the Pokétch Company and the Jubilife Radio Station. After walking through Jubilife City, I found a small schoolhouse-like building. The sign said, "Trainer's School".

"Cool, a trainer school. Now I can learn all there is to know about Pokémon training," I said, walking into the building.

As I walked into the building, I noticed a big blackboard, with a yellow haired trainer standing there, studying the board carefully. At the table in the middle of the room, there were two young trainers seated at it, a lass and a youngster, who were writing things from the board. I peeked at the book that the youngster was writing in.

"Pokémon are to be caught using Pokéballs. Up to six Pokémon can accompany a trainer," said the book. _Psh,_ I thought. _That's some stupid bullshit. Who came up with that rule?_ I read on: "A trainer is someone who catches Pokémon, raises them, and battles with them. A Trainer's mission is to defeat the strong trainers who await challengers in Pokémon Gyms." _Gyms, huh? Never been to one, so it sounds interesting,_ I thought, thinking about what a gym battle would be like.

I walked over to a youngster who was surfing the web, looking for information on Pokémon training.

"Hello."

"Hi," said the youngster.

"I'm interested to know, what is this that you're looking at? I need to know about Pokémon training, so I'm rather curious to know," I said, gesturing to the screen.

"Oh! Well, I'm doing research on Pokémon types, to further expand my knowledge on what we learned today, which is Pokémon types. Umm…" he trailed off, probably trying to remember what he learned. "Grass types are weak to Fire types, Fire to Water, and Water to Grass. Yeah, I think that's how it goes. I mean, I should remember, because the teacher just spent the last hour and a half drilling it into out skulls."

I chuckled. "Yeah, well, you're gonna need the information, so I guess that was a good thing."

"Yeah, but that was just for Fire, Water and Grass types. It turns out," he said, pointing to the screen, "that this does not only apply to the three basic types. This also applies to Steel, Rock, Bug, Psychic, and even Ghost types." He pulled up a chart to show every Pokémon type and their weaknesses. I found out that Steel types are weak to Fire and Water types, and Ghost types are unaffected by Normal and Fighting Types.

"Thanks for the help, kid," I said.

"No problem!" he replied.

There were two trainers there, both Schoolkids. The boy on the left with the glasses had strong Pokémon, and put up a good fight. The girl on the right also had moderately strong Pokémon as well, and also put up a good fight. The boy gave me TM10 Hidden Power. Feeling its power in the battle I'd just had, I considered it pretty much useless, but I kept it anyway.

Suddenly, a woman came rushing in and jogged over to the yellow haired trainer who was standing by the blackboard. She spoke to him very quickly, gave him a little blue case and left in a hurry. In curiosity, I walked over to the blackboard where the yellow haired trainer was standing, looking down at the blue case.  
"What was that all about?" I asked curiously.

"Gah-oh, hello," said the yellow haired trainer, dropping one of the cases he was holding. "Uh, that was my mother. She ran all the way from Twinleaf Town to here just to give me this Town Map, or actually, two of them. I only needed one… here, you want this?" he said, giving me the other Town Map.

"Thanks. Oh, uh, did you say that you were from Twinleaf Town? I'm from there too, and I haven't seen you around. Are you new to Sinnoh?" I asked.

"Yes I am. My name is Barry. Nice to meet you," he said, holding out his hand. We shook hands. "Hey, uh, I'm also a new trainer. Do you think that could be my rival and friend?" he asked. He was a pretty nice guy, and I did need to become stronger, so I figured, why not?

"Yeah. We could become really strong that way," I said. "Oh, also, thanks for the map."

"No problem. I didn't need two, and I was considering tossing it anyway," he replied. "Okay, so, I should be taking on the gym in Oreburgh City next, so, I'll see you around, or maybe in Oreburgh, depending on where you go. But coming from me, I think that you should take on the gym leader in Oreburgh. See ya later, um, I didn't catch your name."

"Vincent. Or you can call me Vinny, whatever you like."

"Okay, see you later, Vinny! Bye!" called Barry as he darted out the door. Since he was going to Oreburgh to take on the gym, I guess I could follow him to learn a little bit about Gyms.

I exited the Trainer's School and walked around for a bit. I started noticing these weird clown dudes, so I decided to talk to all three of them to see what was going on. I had to answer their trivia questions about Pokémon, which I learned a bit from. As a reward, I got a very convenient Pokétch, or Pokémon Watch for short. I decided to go to the Pokémon Center to heal up (Nurse Joy didn't even seem the slightest bit startled that I was half-Charizard, she treated it as if it was normal) and then I headed out to Route 203.


	5. Chapter 5: The Gym

Out on Route 203, I saw a familiar face. It was Barry, training his Pokémon.

"Hey Barry! What's up?" I called.

"Gah-oh, hey Vinny. Guess what? I've been training my Pokémon, and they've gotten stronger. What about you and your Pokémon?" he asked.

"Well, you'd be surprised to hear this, but I _am_ a Pokémon."

I was right; he was surprised. "Wow. I've heard of people like that, though I never thought I'd meet one. Cool! So, you wanna, um, battle?" he asked. I nodded.

Barry sent out his Turtwig, then his Starly, and then his other Pokémon, all of which I defeated. Afterwards, we shook hands and parted.

I then proceeded to battle other trainers, growing in levels quickly, seeing all kinds of cool new Pokémon, and getting prize money.

To the west, I entered Oreburgh Gate, and after a few steps, I was immediately stopped by a Hiker.

"Hey, that sparkling new Pokétch! Your awkwardness as a traveler!" he exclaimed as I took a step back. _My awkwardness as a traveler?_ I thought. _What the hell does he mean by that?_ Ignoring that, I held up my wrist to show him the Pokétch. "This thing?" I said.

"No, the thing on your head. Yes, the thing on your wrist!" he exclaimed almost annoyed.

"What about it?" I asked.

"Well, you're still a pretty new trainer, aren't you?" he asked.

"Yeah, I started 9 hours ago." I replied.

"Holy crap, seriously?" he shouted.

"Yeah. What's so surprising about that?"

"Oh, uh, nothing. It's just that it took me more than 9 hours to get here." He replied, obviously surprised. "But anyway, since you're a new fellow friend of Pokémon, let me make a gift of this Hidden Machine to you!"

He handed me a little disc which had a sticker on it that said "HM06". _An HM, huh? Never heard about it, but maybe I could learn something from it,_ I thought, as I placed it in my bag.

"As you can see," said the Hiker excitedly, "that is an HM, and this particular one contains Rock Smash," he said pointing to the fine print underneath the HM06 label. "Pokémon that learn this move can crack boulders that block their path. However, in order for trainers to legally use HM's outside of battle, they need to collect gym badges showing that they are worthy trainers. I know, I know. It's kind of dumb, but it's just the law."

"Okay, thanks. Bye," I said as I went to challenge the other trainers there, a Picnicker and a Camper, both of which I swiftly defeated.

Once I entered Oreburgh City, there was a youngster standing there looking up at the night sky, almost like he was in a daze.

"Yo, I'm kind of lost. Can you help me find the Oreburgh Gym?" I asked the youngster politely.

"Huh? Oh, yeah. Follow me," he replied, snapping out of his daze.

"If you have no gym badges, then other trainers will look down on you," he mentioned as we walked to the gym. "We're her- oh, someone is at the door. That's strange. Well, you should go talk to him or something."

I recognized the trainer right away. The yellow hair, the orange striped shirt, the shoulder trainer bag. It was Barry.

"Hey Barry. How's it going?" I greeted walking up to him.

"Gah-oh, hey, Vinny! What's up? Have your Pokémon gotten stronger? Mine have. Well, I got something to tell ya. This gym is, like, really tough, like, seriously serious!"

I chuckled. "Seriously serious, huh? The gym leader would stand no chance against me, regardless of whether I'm a fire type or not. Speaking of, where is the gym leader? Did you beat him already?"

"Yeah, I beat him, which was pretty freakin' tough. But after I beat him, he ran off to the coal mine to do some work."

"Sucks to be me, 'cuz that means I gotta find him," I said walking off towards the mine. "See you later, Barry."

After a while, I got to the caverns where the miners were working and also challenged me to battles. After swiftly defeating them all, I rounded a corner to find a miner wearing a red hat instead of a yellow hat.

"Hey, stand back and watch this," he whispered. "Using the HM Rock Smash…" CRACK! The miner's Pokémon smashed a boulder in his way. "A boulder in your way will break. Fallen boulders need to be smashed to clear your path. If you get the gym badge from the gym leader at Oreburgh Gym, you can legally use it outside of battle," he said quietly. "You look like a newbie. Can I give you some advice?"

"Sure. Thank you."

"No problem. So, in order to get a gym badge, you need to defeat the gym leader of the gym you are challenging. And it just so happens that the gym leader of Oreburgh Gym is… me!" he said proudly. "Anyway, I have what I need, so I hope to see you at the gym. Bye!" he said trotting away, whistling a merry tune.

Back on the surface, I went to heal at the Pokémon center. When I got to the gym, Barry was gone. He had probably went off to the next town.

In the gym, I decided to try using the HM to make the battles easier. There was a little sticker on the back of the thick disc for a tutorial on how to learn a TM or HM.

 _Grip the bottom of the Machine and press it to your Pokémon's head. Because of advancements technology, your Pokémon will somehow learn this move. Scientists can't explain this phenomenon because no one can understand Pokémon,_ said the sticker. _Yeah,_ I thought, _I think I can explain this. Take that, science._

I pressed the HM to my forehead and instantly I could feel waves of data surging through my brain. My head was throbbing and it almost hurt, but it also had sort of a tingling sensation. It's sort of like when you hold your breath and try to force yourself to pass out, sort of like when you're raging or something and your face gets all red. And then you let out your breath when you almost pass out. Anyway, that's exactly what it felt like when I pressed the HM to my head. But after all of that was done, I knew Rock Smash. It was like it just appeared there in my brain.

"Let's do this."

I defeated all of the trainers (2 of them) in the gym and ascended the stairs to the gym leader. Standing there was the helpful guy from the mines.

"Hey, you came. Welcome to the Oreburgh City gym! My name is Roark," he greeted.

"Hey. Thanks for the tip earlier."

"No problem, man. I was glad to help." He replied.

"Hey, before we fight, I need to tell you about me."

I then proceeded to tell him about me being half-Charizard. He seemed to take it into consideration, and nodded, while readying a Pokéball.

"I understand. There are people like that, so I guess it's normal. But still, I am a gym leader nonetheless. So whether you are half human or not, I will do everything in my power to win! So then! Let's battle! Go, Geodude!"

He threw out his first Pokémon, a Geodude.

"Geodude, use Rock Throw!" yelled Roark.

"Geo…DUDE!" cried Geodude as he used Rock Throw on me. I cancelled the attack using Rock Smash to punch through the rock. Lots of debris flew around me, some of which hit me, causing me to take damage. However, my Rock Smash continued on to hit Geodude, who fainted under the force of the supereffective attack and fell to the ground.

"Geodude, come back!" shouted Roark, as a red laser enveloped Geodude and returned him to his Pokéball.

"Go, Onix!"

Suddenly, out of nowhere, a giant rock snake filled the stadium.

"Onix, Stealth Rock!"

Onix obeyed, throwing lots of sharp pointed stones around the arena.

"Gotta be careful…" I muttered, sidestepping the sharp stones on the ground.

I charged up a flame ball to about the size of one of Onix's middle sections and fired it at his head. Obviously, the attack was not very effective, so I had to come up with a better plan.

"Onix, Rock Throw!"

Onix picked up a rock in the arena and threw it at me with full force. It was traveling towards me at high speed, and it hit my chest, throwing me back.

"Ow, gotta get to his head somehow…"

When I saw an opening, I ran towards Onix at breakneck speed. Carefully, and ninja-like, I climbed up Onix's rock tail and jumped in front of his face.

"Rock fuck."

I Rock Smashed Onix in the face with my fist which sent him flying back, KO'ing him.

"Onix, return! Not bad, kid! But let's see how you hold up with this one!" shouted Roark from the other side of the gym as he sent out his final Pokémon.

"Go, Cranidos!"

Out came a dinosaur-looking Pokémon with spikes on the back of its head.

"CraniDOS!" cried Cranidos sweeping its feet on the ground and bending down, ready to attack.

"Headbutt!"

"Heheh, you said 'butt'" I joked while sidestepping Cranidos's Headbutt.

Even if I hadn't gotten that HM, I had another attack that, thankfully, was super effective against Rock types. I ran up to Cranidos, who was panicking with his head stuck in the wall.

"Steel…PUNCH!" My fist became as hard as steel and hit Cranidos with a loud WHAM!

When the dust settled, all that was left was me breathing heavily and Cranidos on the ground, KO'ed.

"Cranidos, come back."

With those words, I knew that I had won.

"Wow. Just, wow. Um, this is pretty embarrassing. I went and lost to two trainers in a row, both who didn't have a single gym badge. I can accept losing, but to two trainers _in a row?_ Ah, whatever. You were tough and I was weak. That's basically all there is. Now that you have won, it's my honor to give you the official Pokémon League Coal Badge!"

I accepted the badge, with a few bruises, and put the badge in my trainer case.

"You know, you're really amazing. I will admit, you have what it takes to become the champion of Sinnoh. It's a long winding road, but you can do it. Oh, also…" he trailed off, reaching into his pocket to pull out a TM.

"Here. This is TM76, Stealth Rock. I hope you will put it to good use. You may not want to use it on yourself, so in that case, I suggest you go out and catch some Pokémon to help you in battle."

"Okay, I will. Thank you for helping me, Roark."

"No problem. I enjoy helping new trainers start their journeys. Oh, one last thing. There are other gym leaders, all who are much stronger than I am. There's seven of them, to be exact. And also there's the Elite Four. Only the most experienced trainers can beat them, and the Champion, all in one shot. So just do your best, and you can achieve your goals."

"Okay, thanks. I hope to see you another time. Bye," I said, walking out of the gym. Roark nodded to me.

xxxx

"There you go, you're completely healed."

"Thank you Nurse Joy."

I was pretty exhausted, but I was determined to go on, to complete my mission. I knew that it was only the beginning, but I didn't give up just yet. So with that thought, I set out for Route 204 to fulfill my destiny.


	6. Chapter 6: The Team

There was a beautiful sunrise over the trees on Route 204. Many trainers were out in the morning exercising with their Pokémon and battling as well. They looked like they were having fun with their Pokémon. _Today,_ I thought, _I'll catch a Pokémon just like Roark recommended._ I figured I would benefit from it, so I walked around for a bit. I was finding wild Pokémon left and right, but I didn't catch any because one, I didn't have any Pokéballs, two, if I did, I wouldn't want to catch any because all the Pokémon in the area were common Pokémon that I'd seen before, and three, I was sort of warming up.

I started walking back to the Jubilife Pokémart to buy some Pokéballs with my prize money.

With my new Pokéballs, I started off toward Route 204 again. However, at the exit, I saw a group of weird guys with blue-green hair and skin-tight sci-fi uniforms surrounding a trainer. The trainer was Barry! Those weirdoes with the stupid bowl cuts were pestering him and I thought about giving those guys a piece of my mind, so I started walking over to them. Two of them noticed me started whispering to each other. The other guy kept bullying Barry. Barry was trying his best to stand up to the bowl cut.

"Hey, check out this guy," muttered one of the weird guys.

"Yeah, look at his face. He's walking over to us thinking he's so tough," said his partner.

As I walked over to the weird guys, I remembered something. The guys who killed dad were a team of bad guys, and these weird guys looked like a team of bad guys too, as they were pestering Barry. Maybe these guys had to do with the murderers, I figured. I suddenly grew angry. I was ready to beat some answers out of them if I had to.

"Hey! Leave my friend alone, sleazebags."

"Or what, dip wad?" retorted one of them. Of course they would say that. Bullies always say that to prove that you have nothing on them.

"Or I'll burn you to a crisp," I replied.

"With what? Your wimpy level 5 Pokémon? If you don't know how to train it, give it to us."

"Oh I'm sorry, I don't have a Pokémon, white trash."

"Then what are you doing as a trainer? Go back home to your mommy where you belong, or we'll send you back ourselves!" cried the space dude sending out his Pokémon, a Zubat.

"I'll show you how a real trainer battles! Zubat, Leech Life!"

Zubat flew forward at incredible speed and stuck out his teeth. I dodged the attack swiftly.

"Barry, you need to get out of here! Rock Smash!" I shouted, while Rock Smashing Zubat to the face. (Why do fighters announce their attacks, you might be wondering. I don't know. It just feels cooler.)

"HOW DID YOU JUST DO THAT?!" gasped the bowl cut dude withdrawing his Zubat. "Oh no. You're not going anywhere!" said the other guy chasing Barry around.

"How did I do what? Use Rock Smash?" I responded coolly. "I just used an HM, that's all. And you know what? You're also going to be questioning, how do I do _this_?" I ignited a Flame Ball in my hand. The guy looked as if he were about to faint. "Oh, also, I don't know if you knew this, but you kind of got something on your head…" the guy reached up and felt his head. "Oh wait, is that your hair? I'm sorry, I thought you had a green blob on your head. Also," the guy looked as if he were about to explode. I was enjoying this. "Did your mom cut your hair, or did you and your buddies go to a barber drunk last night?"

"THAT'S IT! I'VE HAD ENOUGH! GO WURMPLE!"

A Wurmple appeared out of a bright flash of light and charged forwards into my leg.

…awkward moment…

Wurple used Tackle over and over on my leg inflicting close to no damage at all. How big was Wurmple? Oh, about the size of my foot, or literally a foot long.

"Uhhhhhhh…" I just stood there staring down at Wurmple, who had gotten tired of all the tackling. Barry was fighting the other space dude in the distance, shouting at the guy all the while.

I kicked Wurple away, knocking him back a few feet. Immediately, Wurmple charged towards me again, and this time jumped in front of my face.

"Wurmple, String Shot! Shut him up!"

"Oh, but I didn't even say anything you pile of sh-mmf!" Wurmple covered my mouth with a spray of web, causing me to struggle with the string.

"Wurmple, use Tackle!" Wurmple jumped up again and smacked me in the face with its head, which caused my nose to bleed.

"MMMMF! MMMM-AH!" I ripped off the string and I used a new attack on Wurmple.

"Flame Uppercut!" I ignited my whole fist and punched Wurmple into the morning sky.

"Oh my god… the power… its-GACK!" I grabbed the space dude by the throat and pressed him against the wall, raising my other fist into the air behind me and igniting it.

"All right, I want some answers from you," I growled.

"What do you mean? I'm sorry! It was a mistake on my part! What did I do? What do you want from me-OOFT!" I punched the dude in the face, breaking some teeth.

"Shut up. This is what you get for messing with me. I could just go crazy on you right now, but I need information. And you're gonna answer me, unless you want your face smashed in."

"O-okay. What do you need to know?"

"Who are you? And who are you working for?"

"My name is Al Thomson and I work for Team Galactic, specifically my boss, Cyrus. People refer to us as Team Galactic Grunts."

"Do you know any Team whose name started with an S?"

"Well, there's Rocket, Aqua, Magma, Galactic, heh, that's us, um, Plasma, Flare, um, yeah, that's it."

"What? No S? Don't lie to me or you'll pay."

"That's all I know! I swear! I swear on Cyrus! I swear it on God!"

I paused for a moment and then I threw him to the ground. He looked as if he'd seen a demon.

"I want you and your friend over there to deliver a message to the rest of your team. I want you to tell them that I'm coming for them and they better not doubt me. I don't care if I'm a kid. I'm tougher than any average trainer. I'll beat some answers out of all of them if I have to, just the same with you." I raised a fist and he flinched. "If you don't deliver the message to every single one of your team members, then I will personally hunt you down and ensure that your last moments on Earth are LIVING HELL! NOW _SCRAM_!" I didn't know if it was possible for anyone to look anymore scared, but he looked as if God had come down from heaven and was about to send him to the deepest pits of Hell, his eyes as wide as satellites, running away faster than a speeding car.

In less than a few minutes, both of his teammates took off running, with him in the lead.

It was still morning, but the sun was full in the sky now, so I continued onto Route 204, challenging the trainers and fighting wild Pokémon. I soon found my way into a cave called the Ravaged Path. I found some cracked boulders lying on the ground, blocking the path, so I used Rock Smash on the Rocks and continued to the cave's exit.

I pressed on, challenging more trainers and winning more prize money. Then I remembered what I said I was going to do before those Team Galactic Grunts stopped me. I said that I was going to catch a Pokémon, so I started walking around in the tall grass, looking for a rare Pokémon.

After a long time of walking, the sun was high in the sky and I was losing hope. Then all of a sudden, a bird flying through the sky dropped down to look for some food.

"Spearow!" The little bird noticed my presence and flew at my face, ready to attack. Spearow pecked at my face, screeching and flapping all the while I tried to get it off my face.

"Flame Ball!" I created a flame ball in my hand and slapped it towards my face. Spearow went flying to the ground, squaking and flapping its wings.

"Spea…ROW!" cried Spearow as he used Gust, creating a vortex of wind. I planted my feet in the ground, trying not to topple over.

I put my hands in the ready "Hadouken" position and charged an attack.

"Flare…Burst!" I extended my arms and a large beam of fire surged out of my hands and towards Spearow, knocking him down. But was it enough?

I chucked a Pokéball at Spearow, but I missed horribly. Well, I was a beginner, after all. Spearow flew at me at high speed with his beak out, ready to use Peck.

"Oh no you don't." I dodged the attack by rolling to the side and I picked up the Pokéball that I threw. I aimed at Spearow, ready to throw again. But he was too fast! Every time I tried, he either dodged it, or my aim was terrible. I was becoming aggravated, but I pressed on. And then…

"Argh! This better… work!" I yelled as I threw the ball. The ball hit Spearow on the head, and Spearow became a ray of white energy and was encapsulated inside the little ball.

"Yes!" I punched the air in victory. But it wasn't over. It seemed that Spearow was trying to escape from the ball.

The ball wiggled once…

The ball wiggled twice…

The ball wiggled a third time and…

Click!

Spearow was caught! I had caught my first Pokémon!

"YEAH! I actually did it, even though I kinda suck at it… but who cares? I did it! I CAUGHT MY FIRST POKÉMON!" I yelled so loud that the other trainers around me heard my yelling and gave me a weird look. Some of them actually cheered quietly and clapped for me. It felt great. I caught my first Pokémon and I was excited. I was close to the entrance to the next town, so I headed into town to heal up.

The sign overhead said "Welcome to Floaroma Town" _What a strange name,_ I thought at first, but when I saw the flowers galore in the town and people sitting in the patches, just smelling the flowers, my thoughts instantly changed. The town smelled so nice, like I could just melt away into nature, float away like a petal falling gracefully off a tall tree, billowing away into the winds and endless sky…

I entered the Pokémon Center did the usual thing, and left to explore for a bit.

So after wandering around for a bit, I noticed some people looked frightened. Why would anyone look frightened in Floaroma Town? I soon found out why.

Remember those weird space dudes from Jubilife City? Well, it appeared that the Team Galactic was getting into more trouble, this time at Floaroma Town. Oh no. Not on my Pokétch. The two idiots were talking to each other for a bit and then went back on guard. When they started muttering again, I sneaked around behind a tree, ninja-like, so I was close enough to listen to when they were saying.

"Hey, aren't we team Galactic?" muttered one Grunt.

"What do you think? Obviously we're Team Galactic!" replied the other.

"Why are we assigned here, standing among a field of damn flowers? That doesn't seem cool."

"Look man, we don't have to look cool to be a part of Team Galactic. We just gotta do our thing, and then we get paid for it. And anyway, stop complaining. I think this is a pretty decent assignment."

"But Bug and Grass type Pokémon creep me out…"

"Yeah… I guess I can agree with that too. So yeah, I don't like being here either."

 _Weirdoes,_ I thought. The Grunts went back to standing guard. Seeing nothing else in Floaroma Town to do, on account of it being a small town, I headed out for Route 205.

There was a beautiful, clear blue sky over Route 205. The breeze was blowing gently across the fields of green grass and colorful flowers. Along the path, I saw a little girl on her knees, face in her hands, lamenting as if someone had just died.

"Hey little girl. Do you need some help?" I asked kindly.

"Get away from me you filthy, rotten… oh, you're not a part of Team Galactic?" the girl realized.

"No, I hate those guys. They were bullying my friend Barry."

"Oh thank goodness, can you please help me?" said the girl with her eyes brimming with salty tears.

"Sure. Do you need me to confront those Galactic dudes?"

"Well, they took my papa, and forced him to work day and night, and no matter how much I ask them, even if I say 'please' they won't listen. They have no manners."

"Oh, so now they're messing with grownups? And I thought they only messed with trainers. Now they're gonna pay. Don't worry, I'll get your papa back."

"Oh, thank you so much, trainer!"

"Um, where did they take your papa to?"

"The Valley Windworks. It's that way." She pointed west.

Tall windmills surrounded the small building, creating a calm, cool breeze. Standing in front of the Windworks building was yet another Grunt. I quickly defeated him, but he ran in the door behind him, and before I could chase after him, I heard the door lock with a loud KA-CHAK.

"If you're so desperate to get in here, then you can find the other key in the Floaroma Meadow," said the Grunt snootily.

"I swear to God, when I do, I'm gonna come in there and break your neck and burn you into nothing more than a pile of ashes. That, my friend, is not a threat, that's a PROMISE." I growled, storming away.

I made my way to the meadow where I saw the two guard Grunts from before harassing a grown man.

"Come on! Quit arguing and hand over that sweet honey!"

"Do as we say! Team Galactic will need that honey! We must use it to attract Pokémon in great numbers and capture them!"

 _Wow_ , I thought. _These guys are really stupid. They're announcing their plan in front of a person. So they think that they're gonna steal the honey huh? Oh no. Not today._

"Hey, idiots."

They spun around and the guy on the right smiled a horrible smile.

"Looky here. If it isn't the pyro from Jubilife City. I didn't get to thank you for ruining our plans. So now," the Grunt took out a Pokéball, "Now I will have the pleasure of defeating you."

Long story short, it turned out that I took the pleasure of defeating them. They both fled the scene, and the man and I were alone.

"Thank you, boy. Thank you so much for saving me. Here, I want you to have this." He handed me a jar of honey.

"No thank you sir. You keep it. I know you want to repay me, but you tried so hard to protect that honey that I don't want to have it. It feels wrong, in a way."

"Thank you for saving me, though. I can't thank you enough."

"Listen, I just did my thing, and those guys stopped bothering you. Simple as that."

"Oh, also, I found this on the ground. One of them obviously left it here."

It was the key to the Windworks.

"Thanks. Bye."

"Goodbye," called the man as I exited out onto Route 205, ready to kick Team Galactic's ass at the Windworks.


	7. Chapter 7: The Dream

With a look of determination in my eyes, I marched closer to the Valley Windworks where my enemy was waiting.

Ka-chak!

KLANG!

I kicked the door off its hinges and it smashed into the wall, bent out of shape. I then continued into the building were a few Grunts were waiting to fight me.

With a flaming pile of beat up Grunts behind me and every wall stained with blood and guts, I soon found myself face to face with a different looking Team Galactic member with red hair. She was guarding a man with a labcoat.

 _He must be the little girl's father! Oh, this chick is going to pay…_ I thought. Then, the girl spoke.

"Oh, what a surprise. Hi, trainer. Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Mars. I'm one of Team Galactic's three-sorry-four commanders," said the red haired girl. "We're trying to create a world better than this world…and yet-"

"Shut up. I don't want to hear any of you and your teammate's stupid shitty plans to take over the world. I get it. You guys are greedy and arrogant, but I've come to put an end to your dumbass plans."

"Oh, aren't you feisty. You wouldn't understand what we're doing, now would you? It's a bit saddening… so we will have a battle to decide what we should do next. Here's how it works though. If I win, you will leave and never bother us again. If you win, then we will leave. How does that sound?"

"Oh believe me, I'll give you something more than just a little battle," I snarled, readying myself for battle.

She first sent out a Zubat which tried to use Leech Life, but I dodged quickly.

"How many of these things do each of you guys have!?" I yelled, knocking out Zubat. "I swear, this is ridiculous! Is it a requirement for all of you to have at least one goddamn Zubat on your teams?"

"Kinda… but that doesn't matter! You want a different Pokémon? I'll give you a different Pokémon! Go Purugly!"

"Ha, Pur-UGLY? What a stupid name- OH MY GOD, THAT THING IS FREAKIN' UGLY!"

And it was. It was fat, first of all, it had sort of a spring tail, it had purple ears, and it looked mad as hell.

"Purugly, use Faint Attack!"

Purugly vanished, and I looked around. Suddenly, I heard a sort of whoosh sound, and Purugly appeared behind me. Luckily, I blocked just in time.

"Oh no you don't!" I held my arms up in an X shape which blocked Purugly's attack. I kicked Purugly away, and charged my attack.

"Flame Ball!"

"Fake Out!"

Purugly clapped its paws around the Flame Ball, but it couldn't take the pressure. Purugly flew back into the wall, KO'ed. I had won.

"What!? I lost to you? You little brat!"

The battle was over. I was exhausted. I rested on one knee, panting all the while.

"Whatever. It's quite alright that I lost. I enjoyed our little battle. As promised, I will leave. We have all the energy we need-" Mars looked over at the pile of Grunts on the other side of the room. "Uh… I will leave, and um… yeah, um, bye!" She ran over to the pile of Grunts and dragged them away.

"That was amazing."

The man in the lab coat was standing there with a look of awe on his face.

"Oh, uh, thanks."

"Where did you learn to fight like that?"

"Oh, well, I was born with fire powers, and I've been training since I became a trainer, which was 2 days ago."

"And you're this strong already? Wow, I see great potential in you."

"Thank you."

"So, Team Galactic… they were saying they had to gather Pokémon and energy no matter what. They said it was for creating a new universe, or something like that. It didn't really make sense to me."

"But why? Why would they want to create a new universe? Isn't this universe good enough? Ah, whatever. I'll stop them, no matter what it takes. I don't care."

At that moment, the little girl came rushing up to us from the other side of the room.

"Papa! You're safe!"

"Oh, Thank goodness, you're safe as well."

"Ew, papa, you're stinky! You need to take a shower!"

"Eheh, I guess that's the outcome of working nonstop."

The little girl turned to me. "Thank you so much trainer! You saved my papa from those bad guys! I think the balloon Pokémon will start to visit again."

"Balloon Pokémon? What balloon Pokémon?" I asked.

"Oh, you've never heard? About the Pokémon Drifloon? Don't worry, you'll see it one day."

"Drifloon…? Wait, I've heard that name somewhere, but where? Where do I know that name from?"

Outside the Windworks building I wondered, who? Where? How? As I thought about it, I continued north.

On north Route 205, I pressed on and on, fighting more trainers and training with Spearow, who grew in levels as well. But the name stuck. Drifloon…

Where have I heard that name?

I made my way to a rest house in front of a large forest that expanded farther than arm's length if you were standing in front of the entrance. A lady greeted me and asked if I wanted to rest for a bit. I nodded with my eyes shut and followed her over to a comfortable looking bed. I didn't hear the rest of her words, I remembered was her saying something about working too hard is bad, or something like that, but I was so tired that I fell asleep before my head hit the pillow.

I had a dream where I was standing in a town. As I looked around, the setting seemed more and more familiar. I was in Floaroma Town. I smiled, because I like that place. I was taking it all in, when suddenly, I heard screaming, followed by angry yelling coming from Route 205. I saw a woman running for her life, holding a baby child. She was running away from a gang of guys with facemasks, ducking and screaming all the while. She ran towards me but tripped over and dropped the baby. The baby in the cloth started crying and the woman desperately tried to crawl over to the baby. Out of curiosity, I leaned over and looked in the cloth at the baby's face. The baby was starting to grow a bit of hair, which was black. _My hair is black too,_ I thought. The baby looked like me, with those deep brown eyes, and the serious expression- _Wait,_ I thought, _is that…me? A-and that must be my mom!_ I looked over at the woman who had gotten a hold of the baby.

Then suddenly, I felt a blast of heat. I stepped away, and I felt cool again. I stepped towards Mom and baby me and I felt warm again. Why was that? I heard the shouts getting closer, and I saw the black silhouettes gathering around Mom and the baby. Mom held onto the baby for dear life as the silhouettes began whacking at mom, beating her terribly with sticks and bats.

"LEAVE HER ALONE!" I yelled, charging up Flame Ball, but the silhouettes had some sort of shield around them in which the attack backfired. I blocked, and then kicked the barrier, which sent me flying back. I couldn't attack. It seemed hopeless. I seemed powerless. Then, one of the silhouettes used their own attack, an electric attack. I was sent flying back even farther, in which I was paralyzed. I tried moving closer to the bad guys, coughing up blood all the while, but everything seemed hopeless once again.

I was ready to give up. The silhouette that attacked me turned and saw that I was trying to get back over to them, and started to attack, but suddenly, a figure dropped out of the sky. It was a balloon-no-it was a Pokémon. Wait a second, a balloon… Pokémon? It seemed familiar, somehow. It used an attack that knocked out all of the silhouettes, and then it fled the scene, carrying Mom and baby me. Behind me, however, a silhouette got up and summoned an attack on me. A bolt of lightning dropped out of the sky, heading straight for my head.

"GAHH!" I sat straight up. I was in a bed. I checked for any wounds or blood. None. I moved my arms. They seemed fine.

"Are you alright, sweetie?" asked the woman who had put me to bed.

"I think I know now. Uh, thank you for letting me stay."

"My pleasure. Don't forget, working too hard is bad for you, so you should take a break once in a while."

"Okay. Thank you! Goodbye!" I called, running out of the house. I understood my dream. I realized:

Drifloon saved my mother. Drifloon saved my life.


	8. Chapter 8: The Monster

**Warning: This chapter includes a very graphic, gory murder scene. Viewers under the age of 16 should not read unless they want violent nightmares. I'm serious. Unless you like graphic violence, then turn to the next chapter, or two chapters after this because the next chapter also includes some graphic violence at the beginning.**

After resting up in the house, I set out towards the forest. The sign stated that the forest was called Eterna Forest which connected Route 205 to Eterna City. According to the map, the next gym was located there. Not waiting another second, I bravely marched into the forest.

It took my eyes a few seconds to adjust to the dark forest. The trees overhead were dense, allowing only a bit of light to enter. The grass was lush green and the smell of evergreen filled my nostrils and birds chirped softly in the quiet environment. I was reminded strongly of home and I felt homesick.

Suddenly, a girl ran up to me looking worried.

"Hi, um, my name is Cheryl. And you are…?"

"Oh, hi. My name is Vincent, but you can call me Vinny."

"Ok, Vinny. I'm sincerely glad to meet you. Can I ask a favor of you?"

"Uh, sure. What do ya need?"

"I need to go through this forest, but I'm afraid of going it alone."

"Why, might I ask?"

"Because I heard that there's this evil group of people called Team Galactic wandering about, and I'm scared that I should have to face them. So, may I please go with you?"

I will admit, I did think about it for a second, because I'd be going with a complete stranger, but I thought against it. One, I did feel kinda lonely myself, and two, she seemed nice enough. Cheryl was pretty. She had a nice face with dark green hair. Her clothes were green, her eyes, her hair, she seemed to blend right in with nature… I snapped back to reality.

"O-okay, sure."

"Thank you, Vinny. In return, I can keep your Pokémon in perfect condition."

"Oh, thanks."

"You know, when we're together, we might be able to see two Pokémon come out of the tall grass at once. It's kind of startling."

"Two Pokémon at once? What!?"

"Yeah, that can happen. Also, we might be able to get into a double battle with trainers as well."

Well, that's exactly what happened. Throughout the forest, there were numerous trainers, always in doubles. Cheryl always sent out her Chansey, while I used Spearow most of the time. Cheryl did witness my power, but only briefly.

Before we knew it, we had made it through the forest without meeting a single Galactic Grunt.

"Oh, here's the exit! We made it… I'm so relieved. I never would've been able to go by myself. Thank you so much, Vinny!"

"Oh, no problem! I'm also relieved that we were able to get through as well."

"Here, take this as a symbol of my appreciation." She handed me a silver bell. "It's a Soothe Bell. Use it to calm a Pokémon and make it friendlier. Oh and also…" She leaned forward and kissed me on my cheek. I felt my face getting hot. She walked towards the exit. "I hope we'll meet again someday. Bye for now!"

I stood there for a second, lost in my own world. I was replaying that little kiss over and over again. I exited the forest as well.

There were a few trainers on North Route 205, all Fishermen. I defeated them all like it was nothing. I thought about that. Was I really that strong already?

I entered Eterna City. Tall buildings rose up around me mixed with old-fashioned houses. I noticed the blue-green hair around the city and grew angry.

"Again?! I swear to God, they are going to DIE!" I noticed a Grunt standing by the Pokémon Center. I didn't recognize him, because he looked like every other Grunt, with the spacey, skin tight jumpsuit, and the stupid blue green bowl haircut. But by the look on his face, he sure as hell recognized me.

"Y-you! Please don't hurt me! I'm not doing anything wrong! Mercy!" At first, I didn't know what he was talking about, but suddenly, I remembered Jubilife City. It was that one dude who I promised to kill if he didn't spread my word. Then thinking about the Windworks and how no one recognized me, I grew even angrier than I was before.

"OH, NOT ME. YOU." I growled in the demon voice. I grabbed his throat and dragged him into an alley. He screamed for his life.

"BY THE END OF TODAY, TEAM GALACTIC IS GONNA HAVE ONE LESS TEAM MEMBER."

"What did I do wrong?" he cried.

"BACK IN JUBILIFE CITY, I TOLD YOU TO SPREAD THE WORD OF MY COMING. AND YOU DIDN'T."

"Yes I did! I told my teammates! I'm sorry! They didn't believe me! They just laughed like it was nothing, and just walked away."

"WELL JUST LIKE THEM, YOU'RE GONNA DIE. BUT THE ONLY DIFFERENCE IS THAT YOU'RE GONNA DIE AN EXTREMELY SLOW AND PAINFUL DEATH. _NOW DIE!_ "

I slammed him up against the wall and punched him in the guts 20 times. Hard. He spit up blood all over his suit, which turned a deep shade of red. To prevent him from screaming, I grabbed his throat and ripped out his vocal cords. I punched really hard all over his chest, breaking all of his ribs. Then I grabbed both of his arms, planted my foot of his back, and pulled with all my might, pulling his arms out of his arm sockets. I kicked his back, sending him flying and breaking his vertebrae at the same. I crushed both of his dislocated arms against the wall and the advanced on him. He lay on the ground, unable to scream.

"DON'T WORRY. I'LL PUT YOU OUT OF YOUR MISERY ONCE AND FOR ALL."

I jumped on his back, broke his legs and ripped them off. I crushed both of his legs as well and jumped on him again and Steel Punched his backbone. I started to rip out his guts, one by one, from his heart to his intestines, until he was a lifeless shell. I broke every bone in his body and squashed his muscles and then after he was mush, I ripped his brain out, crushed his head, and set all of his guts and mushy body on fire with a Flame Ball.

I stood there, panting. I felt no remorse for just brutally murdering a Grunt. I felt no sadness. I felt only anger. Fury surged through my soul like rushing water. The bonfire in front of me crackled and flared with an orange light. _Why am I so angry? Did that guy really deserve to die?_ I wondered. _Yes, he did deserve to die. Just like the rest of Team Galactic. Ah, what am I talking about? I'm a monster._ I looked at my hands. They were a deep red color.

 _Monster… I'm a monster…_

xxxx

"How did you ever get so much blood on you? Who did you fight?" questioned Nurse Joy.

"Some things are left unanswered, Nurse Joy. And is there a bathroom?"

I exited the Pokémon Center and headed north in Eterna City. There was a tall building there, but it was blocked off by trees. I moved on.

I walked eastward, and up to a big statue that looked like an ancient Pokémon. Standing there was Barry, but also a man with blue hair in a Team Galactic uniform.

"Hey Barry." I tapped on Barry's shoulder.

"Gah-oh, hey dude. There's this weird Galactic dude standing in front of the statue over there talking to himself. What a weirdo! Listen."

The blue haired man spoke to himself. "So this is Eterna City's famous Pokémon statue… shaping our world are time and space in an intertwining spiral. Revered in Sinnoh are the Pokémon of time and space… so Sinnoh's myth… it needs true investigation." He stopped talking and walked over to us.

"Pardon me. Stand aside."

"Wait, are you part of Team Galactic?"

"That is nothing of your concern. Now kindly stand aside."

"No. I would like you to answer me. Who are you?"

"Fine. You want an answer so bad? I'm Team Galactic's boss, Cyrus."

My memory flashed back to Jubilife City. The guy I just killed, I remember him talking about working for this dude Cyrus.

"You're Cyrus?"

"Yes. I'm the leader of Team Galactic, and if you don't move, then I will force you. Now while I'm still saying it kindly, move aside." He walked off leaving me and Barry standing there confused. _Who does he think he is, pushing us aside like he's some high power aristocrat?_ I thought.

"Okay, I guess I'll see you some other time. I'm gonna go challenge the gym. Bye!" Barry walked away, whistling a tune.

 _I guess I should go challenge the gym as well,_ I decided.

I started walking towards the gym, but along the way, I bumped into a lady with yellow hair.

"Oh, sorry ma'am."

"It's all right. Oh, uh were you just looking at the Pokémon statue over there?"

"Yes. I was just looking at it with my friend."

"Oh. Uh, if I may ask, what is your name?"

"Vincent. But you can call me Vinny."

"Alright. I will be sure to remember your name. Um, my name is Cynthia. I'm a trainer like you. I've recently been studying Pokémon mythology, out of curiosity. As you saw over there, that is Eterna City's famous Pokémon statue. It is the statue of an ancient Pokémon. According to legend, it was an extremely powerful Pokémon that created the flow of time. Who knows? You may encounter it one day."

"Ah, I doubt it. It looks ancient, like from billions of years ago. No way could it still be around."

"You never know. You look like a tough trainer. Here, you can use this HM."

She handed me an HM. "It's HM01, Cut. It can cut down trees that are blocking your path."

"No thank you. I don't need it. Why use an HM you have fire?" I held up a Flame Ball.

"Wow! Interesting. You know, I've met someone like that before. Just like you. You know, with the fire and all. It was a long time ago, like 7 or so years ago. He was from a faraway land, a long way from the Pokémon Regions. I don't remember his name, I think it started with an N or something, but he was referred to as 'Salamander'."

"Salamander? Was he a lizard?"

"No, he was human, but he had fire powers like you, Vinny."

 _Huh, I'd like to meet this Salamander one day,_ I thought.

"Okay then. I will keep that in mind."

"Good luck to you, Vinny."

I made my way to Route 211, fighting some trainers there with Spearow. I entered the cave's entrance on the side of the mountain, only to find my path blocked by giant boulders. I tried Steel Punching them, but I had no luck, because they were extremely heavy.

Back in Eterna City, I headed to the gym to find Barry walking out ("This gym should be easy for you, since you're a fire type. Good luck!") then headed inside the gym.

The gym was a big puzzle, but it was relatively easy. I ignored the flower spinny-thingy-whatever in the middle of the room and just walked through the water spouts blocking the way. _Take that, rules,_ I thought. I challenged everyone in the gym until I got to the gym leader, who introduced herself as Gardenia. She was no match for me, of course, with her Turtwig, Cherrim, and Roserade. I defeated Gardenia in seconds, who gave me the Eterna City Forest Badge and TM86, Grass Knot. She told me that I could legally use HM01, Cut outside of battle, but since I didn't have it, I ignored that.

I headed to the south route, Cycling Road and Route 206, but the guard said that I couldn't pass if I didn't have a Bicycle.

I remembered that I had seen a bicycle shop in Eterna City, so I headed there. When I got there, there was a sign on the door that said "Closed". Then I saw the fine print underneath the "Closed" sign which said, "The bike shop will be closed until Team Galactic is gone from this city." I look at the building to the north and walked over to it. I burned down the trees that were planted there and marched inside the building, ready to kick Team Galactic's ass once more.


	9. Chapter 9: The Rush (Pt 1)

KSSH!

My foot came in contact with the glass sliding door and shards of glass flew everywhere.

The first two Grunts standing there reached for their Pokéballs. I didn't give them enough time and Steel Punched their heads off. Then I ripped out each of their guts and removed their spines, leaving a deep red pool of blood around me. Blood splattered on my face and coated my hands a deep red hue. I didn't wait for the other two Grunts to send out their Pokémon. I brutally murdered them as well. I advanced onto the next floors, killing masses of Grunts.

I went on a ruthless killing spree until I reached the top floor. Standing there was another Commander and the bike shop guy. I was covered in blood from head to torso and my nostrils flared. I walked towards the Commander who introduced herself as Jupiter. I then realized that the bike man would be in danger if he stuck around.

"Sir! You can't stick around! You must leave, now!"

"Thank you trainer!" The man started to run, but Jupiter sent her Zubat after the man.

"Oh no you don't! Get back here!" Luckily, I used Flare Burst just in time before Zubat caught up to the man. Jupiter then sent out her Skuntank who fainted almost instantly due to the fact that I used Flame Ball before it came out of its ball. The battle was over in a few seconds.

"What?! Losing to a child?! Ah, whatever. It's alright. Our Pokémon Statue investigation is finished. Mars has collected energy from the Windworks, so we're pretty much done here. But I'll let you in on a little secret, though. Our boss, Cyrus, is researching the myths of ancient Pokémon and plans on resurrecting them to gain their power and become the ruler of Sinnoh. So I suggest you keep out of Team Galactic's affairs from now on."

"No! I won't stop until Cyrus's plans are dead and buried underground a thousand miles deep! I'll make sure of it! I want you to tell him what I intend on doing so that his plan never works!"

"Oh, I'm sure _you_ will stop him. Don't make me laugh, kid. Just because you have stopped me, doesn't mean that you can stop him. He's more powerful than all of the Commanders combined. So unless you want to be beaten badly by his Pokémon, stay out of our way! This is your final warning!" And with that final word, Jupiter stormed off.

The skies outside were dark and many bright dots rose in the sky. At the bike shop, the man thanked me for all the trouble I went through and gave me a brand new bike in return. I thanked him and finally left Eterna City.

On Cycling Road, I battled every trainer there and exited to Route 207. I continued on to fight every trainer there alongside Spearow who was looking stronger each time he battled.

I finished battling a Hiker when suddenly…

"Spearow! Spearow!" cried Spearow. Rings of white light enveloped Spearow as it began to change shape. Then everything went bright. The whole area was cloaked in white and I covered my eyes from the brightness. When the light faded, I opened my eyes and standing in front of me was a tall bird with a long beak and neck and broad wings.

"Fearow. Fearow!" Spearow had just evolved into a Fearow. _Evolution, huh? That was amazing. I wonder if I could do that too. Maybe someday._ I thought.

I passed through the tall mountain, Mount Coronet and found myself in a whole new place. I was on Route 208, and on my way to the next city. I battled every trainer on the route like usual and advanced to the city.

Hearthome City was larger than Jubilife City. The city lights illuminated the night like a big festival. I did my usual thing, healing at the Pokémon Center, buying some stuff at the Pokémart, (Yes, I went to the Pokémart. There isn't a Pokémon Center every few feet, you know.) etc. I decided I needed a little break, so I walked around for a bit. I went to the contest hall, Amity Square, the Church, and just walked through the busy city streets, taking in the atmosphere. I went to the gym to take on the challenge, but unfortunately, the gym leader was absent. Seeing nothing else to do, I walked out to Route 209.

Standing in the gate to Route 209 was Barry, organizing his stuff. I tapped his shoulder.

"Gah-oh, Vinny, don't scare me like that! I thought you were a Team Galactic Grunt!"

"Do I really look like that?" I said giving him the "r u kidding" face.

"Oh! I didn't mean like that! I'm sorry Vinny. But anyway, I was just organizing my Pokémon, and I noticed how strong they look! So, do you want to battle?"

"Oh, definitely. I'll show you how strong I've gotten! But…" I gestured around us. "Not in here though. Let's battle outside."

The battle was, yet again, very short. Barry was surprised at my power, and simply nodded. We shook hands and parted ways once again.

I continued forward, battling every trainer like it was nothing. Oddly, there was a strange stone tower on the route. Other than that, there was a taller tower with more trainers waiting inside it. Strangely, there was thick mist inside the tower, but not a bit outside. _Maybe the air vents are blocked._ I thought stupidly. At the top of the tower, I was awarded with HM04, Strength. The creepy lady explained that I could move large boulders with it with no problem. Remembering the boulders back in the cave on Route 211, I figured it would come in handy. In the distance, I noticed a heavy rainstorm. I realized that I had to go through that, which was no problem. In the meantime, I headed into Solaceon Town.

It was a very small town. There was a Pokémon Center, Pokémart, Daycare Center, some houses, and a cave to the east. I healed at the Pokémon Center and pressed on, ignoring the cave for the time being.

I charged through Route 210 battling all the trainers there, then riding all the way through Route 215, battling all the trainers in the pouring rain. It was really intense. Eventually, I finally made it to the next city, Veilstone City.


	10. Chapter 10: The Rush (Pt 2)

If it was even possible, Veilstone City was even larger than Hearthome City. Many buildings towered above. Not that there wasn't much to do, I mean, there was a casino, a department store, and a gym with the gym leader actually there, but it seemed kind of suspicious because one building to the north of the city. It was tall with large spikes sticking out the side.

"Oh, I wonder. Who in the world could be in that building? Hmmm…" I muttered sarcastically. "Team Galactic? Psh. Nah, not a possibility. There's no way that they could be here in Veilstone City." I balled my fists until my nails dug so deeply into my palms that my palms started bleeding. Team Galactic, this is the last straw… I'm serious. Cyrus, you're dead meat. I decided that I would save it for later, since I had to fight the gym leader. I got to the gym and standing there was Barry. He let out a breath, exhausted.

"Hey, Barry."

"Gah-oh, hey dude. What's up? Oh wait, I know. You're gonna go take on the gym challenge, aren't you? Well, I got my ass kicked the first time, but look!" He showed me his trainer case. "Heheh! It was tough. I'm sure it'll be no problem for you, 'cuz you're a freakin' powerhouse. You just keep getting tougher and tougher, don't you?"

"I guess so. I don't wanna brag about it, but yeah, I guess I am getting stronger. So how's it going with you?"

"Me? Well, after I got my ass kicked the first time, I had to go out to Route 214 to grind a whole lot. And then, I traveled down to Pastoria City and met the gym leader there and became his apprentice. Oh…" Just then, a dude in a weird mask and weird clothes came out of the gym's doors whistling a tune:

"The ring is my rolling sea. The towering waves shaped me…"

"Crash! Crash! Crasher Wake! Crash! Crash! Crasher Wake!" roared the big man. "I'm the tidal wave of power to wash you away! Put out the fire, Crasher Wake! Run from electricity, Crasher Wake! Ah, ah, aaaah, the ring is my sea…"

I stood there just blinking. Barry smiled.

"Oh, hello young fellow! Barry," greeted Crasher Wake addressing me, then Barry.

"Hello sir." I responded.

"You are going to take on the gym leader, Maylene, correct? Well, let me tell you, she's young, but born genius. I tried training with her, but I was stunned by how tough she was!"

"Yeah, but do you think she'll stand a chance against me?" A burst of flame shot out my nose. "I think she's in for a surprise."

"Oh, so you are a Fire type, huh? Heh! You might be able to defeat Maylene, but not me! I'll extinguish your flames with my mighty Water type Pokémon! We will meet again in Pastoria City. Good luck!" Crasher Wake turned and left. Barry followed.

"So he thinks he's so tough with his Water types, huh? Water might beat Fire and Steel types, but not this Fire/Steel type! In the meantime though, I think it's time to face Maylene."

I entered the gym, and oh my God, punching bags galore. I walked up to a punching bag and used Steel Punch, just to test out my power. A few seconds later when the dust settled, the punching bag was on the other side of the gym, off the sliding rails, (which had also been broken and bent in the process) broken open with sand flowing out, and the wall behind it with a cracked hole in it. Jeez! All this power… that wasn't even a full-power punch! I was amazed, as well as everyone else in the gym. I fought every trainer in the gym like it was a walk in the park, and then I met Maylene herself. She said she had seen my power from a distance and was eager to see my power in battle. She sent out her Meditite first, which didn't last two seconds, then her Machoke, which was tougher, but still easy as microwaving popcorn. Then at last, I faced her last Pokémon, a Lucario. Surprisingly, it actually took quite a lot of hits to take down. Before my second turn, Lucario used Metal Claw, which scratched my arms badly when I tried to block. Blood ran down my arms as I used Flame Uppercut and knocked Lucario into the air so hard that it was stuck to the ceiling. When Maylene withdrew Lucario, there was a big outline where Lucario once was. The battle was over in about a minute and Maylene gave me the Veilstone City Cobble Badge and TM60, Drain Punch. I thanked her and left. I visited the Pokémon Center after the battle and healed up to get ready to infiltrate the building to the north.

I wasn't able to do anything in the building itself because everything was blocked off. I managed to kill every Grunt there, staining the walls heavily with a deep red color.

I was busy looking for a secret entrance into the Team Galactic Veilstone Headquarters Building when I heard shouting coming from around the corner from the HQ.

"Come on, let me pass, guys!" shouted Barry's voice.

"This is not a playground for little kids! Now go away!"

"Arrgh… you wait until my friend shows up! He's gonna kick your asses!"

"Who, me?" I said.

"Gah-oh, thank God you're here, Vinny. I need you to do me a favor. I came back to Veilstone City from Pastoria City to do a job for Mr. Wake, and that was for me to go back here to an item from the warehouse, but these douchebags won't let me pass! So can you show these idiots whose boss?"

"Oh, definitely. And believe me, I'll do more than just show 'em whose boss! But, you're gonna have to leave. It's gonna get a little messy."

"Wait, what does that mean? Why do I gotta go?"

"Don't ask questions. It's better that you don't know. I'll get the thing you need, and I'll meet you in Pastoria City. Now leave."

"Okay… I'll wait there. The item I needed was HM02, Fly. You should be able to find it in there." Barry left, leaving me to face the two Grunts.

"Looky here. If it isn't the one who constantly ruins our plans. The pyro."

"Yeah, but I have a name, dickbag. It's Vinny, and I'll make you remember it in hell!"

A couple of blood rage minutes later, both Grunts were nothing more than a flaming pile of guts and organs. I entered the warehouse to get HM02. I found that the entrance to the HQ was also blocked off, so with a disapointed sigh, I left.

On Route 214, I fought all the trainers I could find, gaining exp. points as I pressed on. I continued south to the Valor Lakefront and Hotel Grand Lake. There was a restaurant there bustling with trainers and other folks. I fought every trainer there as well but as soon as I was done, my stomach started growling. So I just sat down and had some dinner. While I was eating, I decided to check HM02, Fly. I read the fine print underneath the "HM02" sticker which read: This is an HM, or Hidden Machine. It is a very rare technique and is one out of 8 Hidden Machines that can be obtained. This particular HM contains Fly, obviously. When taught to a Pokémon, the Pokémon will be able to fly to any known town. However, the Veilstone City Cobble Badge is required to legally use this HM outside of battle. Luckily, I had just that. So I paid for the meal, exited the building, and taught HM02 to Fearow right then and there. I didn't want to fly directly to Pastoria City, though. I just walked the rest of the way there, battling trainers all the while until I got to Pastoria City Gate.

Pastoria City was much smaller than Veilstone City, but that was made up for when I found out that there was a Safari Zone. I entered the Great Marsh and just went around going on a catching spree. I caught many Pokémon that I didn't even know about, like Yanma, Tropius, Noctowl, and Quagsire. I caught many other Pokémon, and I even obtained HM05, Defog.

I eventually made it to the gym, where Barry was. I gave him HM02 and challenged him. When the battle was over, I went to challenge the gym. I got past the puzzle easily and fought the trainers in the gym. I eventually made it to Wake who was stunned by me defeating his Water types with fire. He learned after that not to judge others by appearance and gave me the Pastoria City Fen Badge as well as TM55, Brine. I exited the gym and healed at the Pokémon Center. Afterwards, I traveled through the marshlands that was Route 212. Rain poured down from the heavens like a raging monster. I fought all of the trainers there and continued on to the less rainy part of Route 212 only to find myself back in Heartome City again. By now, a bright warm sun was rising up. I flew back to Pastoria City on Fearow, and let me tell you, the view was amazing. The rain had subsided. Fearow and I were cruising high in the sky as I watched the morning sun rise up over the round horizon. I felt like I could melt away into the morning…

Warm… comfort… it's been a while since I've felt it…


	11. Chapter 11: The Explosion

I landed in Pastoria City and returned Fearow into his Pokéball. The warmth of the morning sun was soothing and I smiled. This was a memory to remember. I was confused as to where I was supposed to go, however. I remembered Route 222 was closed off and some fat bastard wouldn't let me pass. Route 212 would only lead me back to Hearthome City, which would've led me in a circle and back around to Veilstone City, so where was I supposed to go? I felt stuck. However, I wasn't stuck for long.

I walked north towards the Great Marsh entrance, only to find Wake standing there, muttering something to himself. Suddenly from behind the Croagunk board, Barry jumped out totally catching me by surprise.

"GAH! Oh. Barry…" I groaned, facepalming. Barry got me back.

"Hahaha! Ayyy, I got ya! You're scared, aren't ya!" Barry teased.

"No, I'm not _scared_ , just surprised," I protested.

"Yeah, _sure_. It's alright to be scared. I mean, I should know…" Barry trailed off because at that moment, Wake spoke up.

"I saw some weird Galactic guy standing around here outside the gate. I got closer to him, but then he ran inside. So now I'm waiting for him to come out…"

BOOOOMM! At that moment, a giant explosion went off in the Great Marsh.

"What was that!" yelled Barry.

"That's what I'd like to know! Wait, you don't think…" Barry and I slowly looked at each other. "It was the Galactic dude, wasn't it?" muttered Barry. "Speak of the devil…" As if on cue, the Galactic Grunt darted out of the gate, his clothes covered in dirt.

"Man, that was rough-" He saw us standing around him.

"YOU! What've you done?!" roared Wake.

"What've I done, you're asking? Well, technically speaking, it wasn't me. There was a package that arrived. Inside the package, there was a bomb called the Galactic Bomb. Me, I was told to push the button on the bomb. So I did. Oh, that's right! Mustn't forget, the test results need reporting!"

"Test results?! WHAT TEST RESULTS?!" I yelled.

"Not telling. Private stuff. Too important for your precious little ears to hear. I must be off! Oh, uh, fat codger, your mask's absurd!" With that, he ran off, laughing his head off. Oh, I was about to _snap_ his neck off. I followed him in pursuit. "GET OVER HERE ASS-HEAD!" I screamed. "Catch me if you can, slow-ass!" taunted the Grunt.

Yes, he was faster than me, but he had a very low stamina. All the way to the Valor Lakefront, he had to stop, take a breath, and keep running, with me on his heels. At the lakefront, though, he readied himself for battle and sent out his Croagunk. It was significantly strong, I will say. I took it down in three hits, instead of one. I guess Team Galactic wasn't so weak after all. But after the battle, I advanced on the Grunt and Steel Punched him in the gut, causing him to spit up blood. He fell to the ground, writhing in pain. I kicked him countless times in his groin and then I planted a foot on his back, stomping on him hard.

"THIS IS FOR THE BOMB YOU SET OFF! THIS IS FOR BEING EVIL! THIS IS FOR ALL THE EVIL ORGANIZATIONS IN THE WORLD! GALACTIC, ROCKET, SOME OTHERS I DON'T REMEMBER… I DON'T CARE! I JUST WANT TO AVENGE MY FATHER'S DEATH!" I kicked him for every last word I spoke, cracking his bones. I then gripped his head and started to twist his head. His head turned almost completely around, ready to snap, when…

"STOP!" And that scream didn't come from the Grunt. I looked up in rage at the person who distracted me.

It was Cynthia.

"Please, stop!"

"Why should I?!"

"Because… because he doesn't deserve to die!"

"…What are you talking about, Cynthia? He's evil! I'm teaching him a lesson that maybe he'll learn in hell!"

"No! Don't… do that…"

"Why?! Why does he 'not deserve to die?'"

"I… I heard you shouting. I couldn't help but think about when a team stole my Pokémon from me. Your father was a Pokémon, correct? Well, he ended up just like my Pokémon. After my Pokémon was taken, I never saw it again. I concluded that it had died, because that's what the team did. They killed Pokémon for fun. I grieved the loss of it, as expected, and I wanted them to die. But then I learned forgiveness and the value of human life. I was mad at first and wanted to go after them, but I learned that it doesn't matter how bad a person is, because at the end of the day, they're still human beings! No one deserves to die, regardless of their title!" Cynthia was tearing up now, with little droplets falling from her eyes. "So please! I beg you, don't kill him! You may not be able forgive a person, but that doesn't mean you have to kill them!"

I stood there for a second, thinking about what she said. I looked at my blood-covered hands and then back at Cynthia.

"I feel no remorse for my actions. Pokémon are Pokémon. But when it's your own family, you wouldn't know the pain! You're not me! You don't feel how I feel! Thanks to the evil in this world, I've never known my father. So I've pledged to rid this universe of evil."

"If you must, stop evil, but don't kill! Every life has its meaning!"

I did give it some thought. I didn't decide right away if I would change, but I let the Grunt go. He crawled away to the lake, slowly. I turned to Cynthia.

"Why are you here?"

"I came to investigate the explosion at the Great Marsh. I figured that Team Galactic was behind it."

"Yeah, obviously. Who wouldn't blame them?"

"So, are you still in training?"

"Oh, definitely. I've already gotten my fourth gym badge from Pastoria City."

"Wow. That's pretty good! How long did it take?"

"About a day and a half."

We continued to converse, talking about Pokémon, training, and the like. I mentioned that I was stuck and I didn't know where to go, and Cynthia told me about Psyduck blocking the path on Route 210 to the mountains. She gave me a bag of Secret Potion. She also gave me an Old Charm and told me to give it to her grandmother in Celestic Town, which Route 210 eventually led to, according to my map. After she left, I sent out Fearow to fly to Solaceon Town.

I landed in Solaceon Town, got on my bike, and rode north to Route 210 where, sure enough, I saw the horde of Psyduck standing around like doofuses. I took the bag of Secret Potion and fed it to each Psyduck, which worked like a charm. Immediately, the Psyduck started to snap out of their dazes, one by one and clearing the path so I could continue northward, where I started fighting trainers, some being hidden in the ground as "ninjas".

As I continued even more north, I noticed a thick fog starting to brew. I remembered the HM I had obtained in the Great Marsh and used it on Fearow. He then began to flap his wings fast, and faster, and faster until they looked like Combee wings. I continued on the path now clear as day, battling trainers and training Fearow. Eventually, I made it to Celestic Town.

Celestic Town was undoubtedly the smallest town on the map and the smallest I'd seen so far. There was a big center in the small town with a little shrine right smack in the middle. A few buildings dotted the town, but besides that, there was nothing else.

There was a Grunt blocking the entrance to the cave behind the shrine. I defeated him (I didn't kill him, though.) and he ran off. Soon after, an old woman came up, thanked me and introduced herself as Cynthia's grandmother. I remembered to give her the Old Charm, which she told me about. Then I entered the cave in which I found a drawing of three weird beings hovering around a shining stone. _What could this be?_ I wondered. I didn't have time to think however, because at that moment Team Galactic's boss, Cyrus entered the cave and walked over to me and talked about his stupid plan in "creating a new world". He proceeded to battle me with his Sneasel, Golbat, and Murkrow. I had no trouble defeating them, although they were tough. After Cyrus was defeated, he left quickly. Cynthia's grandmother walked in, thanking me for ridding Celestic Town of Team Galactic. She gave me HM03, Surf in return and told me if I wanted to use it, then I needed the Relic Badge from Hearthome City, which I didn't have, and I told her so. She told me that she heard the gym leader from Hearthome City was back there and that I should head there and then Canalave City. I exited the cave and flew back to Hearthome City.

I landed in Hearthome City and marched directly to the gym. Inside the gym, the elevator was back down, which meant that the gym leader was indeed back. There were different signs on every floor, each with different math problems. I knew the answers to all of them, but out of curiosity on the first one, I went through the wrong door on purpose. I ended up fighting a trainer in that door. I smiled, and went on to fight every trainer in the gym. Eventually, I made it to the gym leader who was definitely strong. Very strong. I defeated her, and she gave me the Hearthome City Relic Badge and TM65, Shadow Claw. I exited the gym and flew to Jubilife City, where I exited to the west.

I noticed there was water on Route 218, but I couldn't swim. _If only I hadn't skipped out on swimming lessons as a kid…!_ I thought. But just as I was about to give up hope, I saw a big Pokémon in the water. A big, long, blue Pokémon. Bravely, I dived into the water using Steel Punch. The Pokémon cried out angrily and blasted me out of the water. I landed on my knee, facing the gargantuan Pokémon. It was a Gyarados. _Perfect,_ I thought to myself as I fought it.

Eventually, I caught Gyarados and taught it Surf and traversed through Route 218, fighting every trainer. After the Route, I exited westward into Canalave City.


	12. Chapter 12: The History

Canalave City was definitely a large city, but not as large as Hearthome City or Jubilife City. It was a port city with a long stretch of water running right through the middle. I healed at the Pokémon Center and exited. For some strange reason though, there was a lonely house sitting behind the Pokémon Center. It looked old and rather eerie and it gave me the chills. I walked away quickly, half expecting something to jump out of the house at any moment.

I ran across the drawbridge that connected to the other side of the city. However, I stopped in the middle of the bridge because at that moment, I saw Barry running up to me.

"Hey Vinny! Looks like you don't have to scare me every time we meet!"

"Heh, I guess so. Oh uh, were you just at the…?" I trailed off, but Barry understood and showed me his new badge sitting in his trainer case.

"It was tough, man! But when the going gets tough, I just get tougher! I'll bet you do too! So let's go! Right now, you and me!"

He did get tougher. His Pokémon were not so easily taken out with one hit anymore. The battle was still easy, nonetheless. After the battle, Barry and I shook hands and we parted. I ran to the gym and took a brave step inside.

The whole gym was a bunch of panels and rails and elevators. I battled every trainer in the gym, as usual and went to fight the gym leader, Byron who, not surprisingly, was related to Roark from Oreburgh City. Man, that took me back! Anyway, Byron battled with Magneton, Steelix, and Bastiodon, but all of them were no match for my fire power. After I beat Byron, he gave me the Canalave City Mine Badge and TM91, Flash Cannon. I made my way to the bottom and exited with my new badge.

Standing outside was Barry. He looked like he was waiting for me, no, he was waiting for me that whole time.

"Hey, you did it! You got the gym badge! Not a surprise, coming from you, but still, good job! Hey, um, follow me to the library!" And he darted off, not waiting for me. Curious to see what was so important, I rushed to the library as well.

I got to the library and Barry and I walked inside. I started to ascend the stairs until I reached the top floor. Barry was waiting for me there and he motioned for me to come over to one of the bookshelves.

"Hey, um, while you were at the gym, I decided to take a short break from training and look at what I found!" In his hands was a book about the history of the whole Pokémon land. "I thought you might find it interesting. While you're reading that, I'll go look for another book."

I sat down at one of the tables and opened up the book. Some time passed and I was still reading the book that Barry handed to me. I was really engrossed in the book, but then I came across a certain chapter that made my heart stop.

 _The Impact of the Charizard Legion_

 _When Arceus created the universe, it created three beings that would spread throughout the world and bring:_

 _Willpower_

 _Emotion_

 _Knowledge_

 _When the three beings spread throughout the land, humans and Pokémon alike were created. However, there was no judgement for good and evil. Evil humans spread throughout the world like a virus and did horrible things to both Pokémon and humans. But then a group of humans and their Pokémon got together to form the Charizard Legion. The Charizard were set free from their masters to commit the good that would cleanse the Earth. Among those Charizard, one of them was a very powerful Charizard said to have wiped out a whole evil organization at once. That Charizard bore offspring, whose descendants taught their descendants and on and on until the current day when a descendant known as the Great Charizard showed the true strength of the same Charizard from long ago._

 _Mega Evolution was discovered when the Charizard Legion was formed and it was also discovered that all Charizard could Mega Evolve. However, the Great Charizard surpassed the power of all the known Charizard that were in the Charizard Legion. It was said that the Charizard could go beyond the limits of Mega Evolution and a new evolution was discovered called Giga Evolution. Scientists concluded that there may be other evolutions, but no one has discovered anything like it yet._

I closed the book and I just sat there for the longest time just thinking. I remember that mom used to tell me stories of dad, but I never remember her telling me about Giga Evolution. I wondered if I could achieve Mega or even Giga Evolution. And maybe even beyond. At that moment, I wanted to become the true descendant of the Charizard from long ago. I wanted to become a legend, no, I wanted to go _beyond_ legend. If I trained hard enough, maybe I could-

BBOOOOOOOOOMMMM!

Suddenly, a huge explosion could be heard from far away. Barry ran up the stairs and looked at the TV that was sitting there.

" _A huge explosion has been sighted coming from Lake Valor! A news crew is going to investigate the destruction!"_ On the screen, a large stack of smoke was billowing up from the lake. There was only one person, or _team_ I should say who was behind this. Take your best guess. Upon seeing the smoke on TV, I grew angry and darted out of the library faster than a Rapidash. I sent out Fearow and told him to fly directly to the lakefront. He understood and I got on. _Team Galactic… I'll do everything in my power to stop you._

 _I HATE you, Team Galactic._

xxxx

Fearow flew over Lake Valor at immense speed.

"Okay, Fearow! We're gonna drop right… here!" I jumped off Fearow, returned him, and landed on the ground with a loud THUD.

I hurt each Grunt as much as possible, but I tried my best not to kill them. I was even madder than before. I busted my way through the whole Grunt force and entered the cave in the middle of the drained lake.

Inside the lake was yet another Commander who introduced himself as Saturn. Yeah, they sure ain't gonna rule the universe with these names. The battle was short. Saturn told me of Mars at Lake Verity catching the legendary Pokémon which resided there, and that he had already caught the Pokémon in the current lake, called me a child like the rest of them, and left along with the rest of his buddies, but not before I beat him to a blood-splattering pulp. I exited the cave and told Fearow to fly to Lake Verity.

Fearow and I landed in Lake Verity where I saw Barry trying to stop Mars. I went on to beat up every single Grunt there and throw each of them into the lake where they all died a horrible watery death. I advanced on Mars who was having an argument with Barry and put a stop to the argument and beat the crap out of Mars as well and taking my revenge from when we were at the Windworks. Barry was standing there watching, and horrified as I unleashed the beast inside me.

"Don't worry Barry, I wouldn't hurt my friend." I growled viciously watching Mars run away. "That'll teach her not to mess with my friends."

"Wow… just, wow. I can't believe you had this much power-"

"No. I do not have 'that much power'. I'm weak. I must avenge my father's death. You see the grave over there?" I pointed to my father's grave on the other side of the lake.

"Yeah. What about it?"

"What about it? _That_ is my father's empty grave. He was murdered, as I recently found out."

"Oh. Welp, I think we should make our way up north, man. The last lake just so happens to be up north just outside of Snowpoint City. I think we should go together."

"Sure, but just this once. We're supposed to be rivals, right?"

"Heheh, yeah."

"Come on out, Fearow! Come on, Barry. Let's fly to Celestic Town. That's how we get to the north. We gotta pass through the mountains."

So we left Lake Verity and did just that. We double-battled trainers on Route 211 and made our way into Mt. Coronet. I used Strength on the boulders that were there and we continued on. In the depths of Mt. Coronet Cave, Fearow used Defog and blew away the fog so that we could continue on. Soon, we made it to the cave's entrance and stepped outside, and holy shitballs, it was freakin' cold! I quickly warmed up both of us with my body heat, so I was like a walking furnace. We fought trainers on Route 216, who were no match for me because I had my fire. Barry luckily had a Luxray, which used superconductivity on the ice Pokémon. We continued north on Route 217 unaware of what we were going into.


	13. Chapter 13: The Blizzard

On Route 217, Barry and I were hit by an enormous blizzard. And by enormous, I mean, we couldn't see anything but white in front of us within a 10 foot radius. Terrible icy winds pounded us in the face like a bully, the winds were so strong, they pushed us back like a bulldozer, as if the blizzard was trying to prevent us from getting to Snowpoint City.

We trudged through the deep snow, pushing on and on. I hoped that we could find a rest house to catch our breaths. But with the snow blowing furiously around us, we couldn't see jack-shit. However, we weren't cold due to my body heat.

"You know Vinny, I'd rather you burn me than me being frozen to death in this harsh cold!" shouted Barry over the blizzard.

"Yeah. I guess so!" I shouted back.

"I'm glad you're my friend, Vinny! If it weren't for you, I wouldn't be where I am as of today!"

"Thanks Barry! I appreciate it!"

Suddenly, I saw a light in the distance. It was a rest house!

"Barry! Look! We're saved! There's a rest house up ahead- OOFT!" I tripped over something in the snow and toppled over, face-first.

"Vinny! You good?" shouted Barry over the howling of the blizzard.

"Mm-mm! M mm m mm m mm-mm!"

"What? I can't hear you!"

I lifted my head up from the snow. "I said, 'Barry, I think I found an HM!'!"

"Really? What is it?"

"I can't read it! Let's go inside and see!"

So we entered the rest house and put the HM on the table. The guy there said that it was his, but we could have it. Strange. I read the label on the HM: _This is an HM, or Hidden Machine. It is a very rare technique and is one out of 8 Hidden Machines that can be obtained. This particular HM contains Rock Climb, as you can see on the sticker. When taught to a Pokémon, the Pokémon will be able to climb very rocky walls. However, the Snowpoint City Icicle Badge is required to legally use this HM outside of battle._ The next city, luckily, was Snowpoint City, where both Barry and I would get that very badge. I gave the HM to Barry, because why would I need an HM to climb walls?

We exited the house and continued north, fighting more trainers until we reached Acuity Lakefront. Large rocky walls led up to Lake Acuity. Good for Barry, 'cuz he had the HM.

We both walked into the calm, blizzardless city of Snowpoint. I "turned off" my body heat and Barry and I walked around for a bit.

The gym was located right in the middle of the town. I walked in first and Barry followed behind, getting excited. I told Barry that I would take on the gym first and he seemed fine with it. So, that's exactly what I did, and quickly, too. The whole gym was basically a giant ice puzzle, which I defied the rules of. I basically concentrated my fire power into my feet and simply just walked on the ice, no problem. _They'll probably fix it later with a Zamboni,_ I thought while fighting some trainers that were there. Soon, I made it to the gym leader, Candice who had a Snover, Sneasel, Medicham, and Abomasnow on her team, all of which I easily defeated. Medicham, I actually defeated with Fearow. After the battle, Candice admitted defeat and gave me the Snowpoint City Icicle Badge and TM72, Avalanche. I exited the gym and let Barry take on the gym.

While Barry was challenging the gym, I went to walk around Snowpoint City, taking in the atmosphere. I walked up north to the Snowpoint Temple, but there was a lady there blocking the entrance and said that only the 'chosen' could enter. I trudged slowly away through the thick snow and headed towards the Pokémon Center to heal up and the Pokémart to stock up on items. After that, I walked south towards the harbor. I looked out into the distance at the iceberg-filled sea and then up at the sky. I stood there for a long time, just staring at the beautiful, star-dotted sky until Barry came out from the gym with his new Icicle Badge and then we walked to the rocky wall at the Lakefront. Barry used Rock Climb, but I just ran up the rocky wall like a boss. We entered the lake where Jupiter was standing. Barry and I shook hands and he flew off somewhere, probably continuing his journey. I faced Jupiter.

"Huh? Oh, it's you. The one who ruined our plans back in Eterna. What do you care about our work? Why do you follow us around, you annoying brat?"

"One reason. I'm vindictive, in search of my father's killer."

"But what good will that do you? They say, an eye for an eye, but for what? What satisfaction do you get out of it? It's not like you'll be able to see your father again. He's dead! Long gone! What will you gain from it?"

"Satisfaction that the killer's blood is on my hands. If any of you had anything to do with the one who murdered my father, then..." Malice and rage surged in my eyes, and Jupiter took a step back. "I'LL MAKE SURE THAT I KILL EVERY LAST ONE OF YOU. I don't care about your shitty plans. But if you either try to achieve world domination, or had anything to do with my father's death, then kiss this world goodbye."

"Ha! You hit the nail on the head! Of course we're trying to achieve world domination. But..." She started to walk away. "That's nothing of your concern. Leave Team Galactic alone, or experience a world of pain. I've warned you once before, but I won't warn you again. Got it? Good." She exited Lake Acuity.

I thought about what Jupiter said. An eye for an eye, for what? What good would it do me? I thought about it for a while, and realized that it all fit together so perfectly. Team Galactic was evil. The organization who killed my dad was obviously evil. If I eradicated the whole world of evil, then... I didn't know what then. There was no then, I didn't want to think about it too much. I decided to follow Jupiter to Veilstone City where I would get rid of Team Galactic once and for all...

...or so I _thought_.


	14. Chapter 14: The Infiltration

I flew on Fearow to Veilstone City and headed straight up north to the Team Galactic Veilstone HQ. There was a Grunt standing next to the giant antennae-satellite thingy in front of the building.

"There! Would you look at those antennae?"

"I don't care."

"I don't know what they do, but those are some mighty impressive antennae!"

"I don't care!"

"Oh, it's you. I've heard about you. I overheard our Commanders talking about you. I failed to stop your friend, Barry and they took my Clefairy away. My partner called it quits and moved back to his old country. Now we have one less team member. Oh wait…! Oh no. No! Please don't hurt me! I don't know anything! I don't have a storage key-BOOH!" I Steel Punched his guts and he fell to the ground writhing in pain. I walked up to him and frisked him and found a storage key in his pockets. With one last good kick to the face, I walked off towards the warehouse, remembering that there was a blocked door there.

In the warehouse, there was a Grunt guarding the door. I immobilized him, walked up to the door, and used the key, which snapped in half when I used it. The doors slid open and I noticed a set of stairs heading down into an underground pathway.

There were two Grunts guarding the pathway. I sent out Gyarados to defeat them both and then immobilized them, one at a time. I followed the pathway up the stairs and beat up the Grunt who was standing there. I ascended the stairs.

There was a female Grunt there waiting to fight me. I beat her and threw her to the ground. I saw two warp panels. _Left or right?_ I thought. I decided to take the left path. I reappeared in another room with a computer and another panel. I took the panel and reappeared in a room with a flight of stairs. I ascended the stairs.

There was another Grunt on that level tried to oust me from the building. I ousted him from that floor and threw him down the stairs. I noticed a warp panel in the corner and took it.

There was a flight of stairs descending, so I descended the stairs. On the lower level, there was a Scientist Grunt who I also defeated. There was a flight of stairs going down into the basement where a Grunt was waiting to battle me. I defeated his Pokémon and him and found a Galactic card key. I picked it up and returned to the room where I threw the Grunt down the stairs and ascended the stairs.

On the next floor, there were three grunts there which I severely injured without killing. I used the card key on the sliding doors there. I entered a room with a bunch of generators. _Probably Mars' doing,_ I thought while picking up TM21, Frustration.

After a while of going back and forth, not knowing where to go, I eventually just Steel Punched the wall. Bits of debris flew around me as two startled Grunts tried to defeat me with their wimpy-ass Pokémon and even their own fists.

But it failed!

With two Grunts sticking out of the ground, I advanced forth, unlocking the sliding doors with the power of my card key (and my feet).

I made it to some sort of lounge room. I took the warp panel that was there and ended up in some kind of speech room. Lots of Grunts gathered round in the room. I looked around the corner and saw Cyrus teleport in and-

"Hey! What are you doing here kid?"

"Er, I'm, uh, a new recruit! Yeah, that's it!"

"Well, get over here, recruit! You're about to miss Cyrus' speech!"

The Grunt grabbed me by the arm and pulled me into the crowd of Grunts. I instantly felt uncomfortable and claustrophobic. Then, Cyrus spoke into the mic.

"Fellow members of Team Galactic! Hear me! My name as I appear to you today is Cyrus! This world of ours is a crude one. In a word, it is incomplete. It has been, and always will be, a struggle to survive in this world. We humans and Pokémon are likewise incomplete. Because we are all lacking, we fight, we maim… it is ugly. I hate this incompleteness. That we are all incomplete, I hate it with my entire body and being. The world should be complete. The world must change. Then who will change it? Me, Cyrus. And the rest of Team Galactic. Yes, all of you. Together, we pored over myths and exposed their secrets. Together, we captured legendary Pokémon. And now, Team Galactic has obtained the energy to change the world! The power of dreams is within my-I mean our grasp! Understand it fellow members! My long-held dream world is on the verge of becoming reality. All those headed to Mt. Coronet, and those who remain here… Though our missions may differ, our hearts beat as one. Let there be glory for Team Galactic!" With that, the crowd of Grunts erupted into a loud applause.

"Master Cyrus is the greatest, am I right?" shouted the Grunt standing right next to me.

"Oh, uh, yeah. Um, go Cyrus… I guess?" No way would I ever root for Cyrus. I knew what his _real_ objective was. He was going to create a new world, sure, but in reality, their hearts weren't gonna beat as one. He was going to become the aristocrat of the new world and he was going to force everyone to bow down to him. No way in hell was I about to let his plan work. I returned to the warp panel and ascended the stairs.

I defeated the Grunts on the level and threw them both down the stairs and noticed _three_ warp panels this time. I took the one farthest from me and ended up in a room with yet _another_ flight of stairs. I ascended the stairs.

I entered a very dark room and saw a sliding door. I used the key and saw Cyrus standing there.

"Cyrus. I'm gonna end your ass here. The rest of your forces are writhing in pain from the power of my fist and most of them have major injuries. I'm gonna do everything in my power to stop you from creating that world. I know what you're up to. You just want the power for yourself and I won't let you get away with it."

"So you heard my speech, I take it. You were right, child-"

"DON'T CALL ME A CHILD. I'LL END YOUR ASS HERE AND NOW WITH ONE ATTACK AND CALL IT A DAY IF YOU KEEP CALLING ME A CHILD."

"Whatever. You were right, in that I want the whole world for myself. If not, then it could never be a complete and perfect world."

"You stupid, arrogant narcissist."

"Well, it's true, isn't it?"

"What? That you're a stupid, arrogant, power-hungry narcissist?"

"Precisely. You've seen my minions, have you not?"

"Yeah, what about them?"

"Well, you've seen their weak power, correct? That is why I'm the only one who truly matters. But I know why you're truly here. You're here to save Uxie, Azelf and Mespirit, correct?"

"Uh, not exactly-"

"Humph. I was about to release them anyway. I've no need for them anymore. You want to save them, go ahead. I'm not stopping you. But actually, you. I've heard of your amazing power. You would make an excellent specimen."

"Uh I don't really care-"

"Yet you still feel the need to save your little friends? Such pitiful emotions. Pity and compassion are the fault of the human heart. But-"

"SHUT UP! JUST SHUT THE FUCK UP ALREADY! I DON'T CARE AND I SAID SO ALREADY! WILL YOU FUCKING LISTEN?! I DIDN'T COME HERE TO LISTEN TO YOUR SHITTY PLANS OR TO BE MADE FUN OF! I CAME HERE TO KICK YOUR ASS BECAUSE YOU AND YOUR TEAM WERE REALLY GETTING UNDER MY SKIN! BUT YOU JUST RUN YOUR MOUTH LIKE YOU KNOW IT ALL! BUT YOU DON'T! _YOU DON'T!_ I'LL SHOW YOU WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU GET UNDER MY SKIN! TITANIUM FIST!" I used a new move I had just learned and punched Cyrus in the face with it.

Cyrus flew back, his nose broken, and his jaw cracked. I was surprised he wasn't dead. Cyrus got up, ignoring the pain and sent out his Pokémon, which I swiftly defeated like it was nothing. Then Cyrus came over to me angrily.

"You little pest! You wanna fight? Then fight me for real without using your 'metal fist' or whatever the hell you call it!" Cyrus aimed a blow for my head, which I ducked under. I uppercutted him in the chin and punched him in the gut. Then I stood still and let him feel the pain when tried to punch me in the stomach. It stung, but only for a few seconds. Cyrus on the other hand, was not doing so well. He gripped his broken wrist and left hand, screaming in pain. Finally, I slapped him across the face, leaving a red mark there. Cyrus spun around and landed on the ground.

"W-what the hell are you?!"

"I'm an avenger. I rid the world of evil after what happened to my father. Perhaps you've heard of the 'Great Charizard'?"

"Wait, did you just say the 'Great Charizard'? As in, 'Giga Charizard'? Do I know of him? Of course I know of him! Who doesn't know of him? He was a legend. But he was killed in the far regions of the south. I heard of his death, but I wasn't a part of it. You'll have to pin that on someone else."

I walked away, to another warp panel in the room. "Cyrus. Hear me out. The next time I see you getting into trouble, I'm not gonna hold back."

"Hmph. I couldn't care less. Just as long as my dream becomes a reality, I don't care. I'll just find another way to get rid of you, you monster."

"Fine. Don't say I didn't warn you." I took the warp panel out of the room.

I teleported to a long hallway, lined with power generators. At the end of the hallway, there was a room with the three lake Pokémon and Saturn who was managing a machine to drain power from each Pokémon.

"You. GET OUT!" I threw Saturn out the door and before he could react, I punched him in the face and released the three Pokémon. The Pokémon escaped, and so did I, but Saturn grabbed my ankle.

"Y-you. What have you done-OOMPH!" I knocked Saturn out with another normal punch and warped out of there using the green warp panel. I exited the building, continuing on my mission in total peace. I just went to go train a bunch with my Pokémon and getting stronger myself.

Little did I know what was going to happen to the whole region in a few hours time.


	15. Chapter 15: The Mountain

To become the strongest was my main objective. I kept that goal in mind as I walked back and forth in the tall grass training for a few hours until disaster struck.

I was almost to becoming the champion of Sinnoh. I realized that I had seven of the eight badges of the Sinnoh league. The last badge I needed to obtain was in Sunyshore City, according to my map. But hell, I didn't care if I got the last badge or defeated the Pokémon League. I mean, yeah, I wanted to become the champion, but what I meant was that I needed to become the strongest, regardless of me becoming the champion of a region.

With newfound (but temporary) peace, I went to go train my Pokémon and I on various routes, each with different climates. I had decided to go catch another Pokémon and train it to match the level of my other two Pokémon. I ended up catching two Pokémon; a Pikachu from outside the Fuego Ironworks, and a Larvitar on Route 207. I trained with them intensely, also going back to other trainers for rematches. I noticed that Pikachu's defense was rather low, so I had him fight against hard-hitting Pokémon to build up his endurance. Larvitar, I trained mostly his speed by biking on Cycling Road and having him run beside me. Before the calamity broke out, Larvitar evolved into a Pupitar.

So you may be wondering, what is this disaster I keep speaking of? It happened about 5 hours after I stormed the Team Galactic Veilstone HQ building. I was busy trying to figure out how to get past that douchebag blocking the way out to Route 222 when the sky overhead became a dark red-violet color. Worried, I looked up at the sky and there I saw it. The cause of the darkened sky. On top of Mt. Coronet was a huge, irregular, swirling cloud that looked like a satanic ritual, or the end of the world, or...

Cyrus' plan for the creation of a new world.

GOD DAMMIT, CYRUS! I thought angrily, ready to go up to the mountain and end Cyrus once and for all.

"Uh, sir? There happens to be a thing coming from the top of Mt. Coronet-" started the fat douchebag who was blocking the way out to Route 222.

I punched the guy in the face. "YEAH, I CAN SEE THAT, CAPTAIN OBVIOUS! YOU'RE NOT THE ONLY ONE WITH EYES, DUMBASS!" I sent out Fearow and told him to fly directly to the summit. Fearow nodded and we took off.

As Fearow flew farther up the mountain, the climate became cold as shit. It was colder than Snowpoint City. Suddenly, Fearow began slowing down and he cried out because it was so damn cold. I tried to motivate him and push him, but Fearow seriously looked like he was going to give into the cold and catch was somethig you couldn't cure at a Pokémon Center. So I returned him to his Pokéball and continued on foot.

I was standing in a hailstorm on Mt. Coronet. It was so cold that I had to turn on my outside body heat. A few Grunts were standing around, guarding the area. I quickly defeated them and advanced to a cave entrance. Inside the cave, there was a rushing waterfall and another entrance above the waterfall. I walked up to a rocky wall and began climbing until I reached the top. I stopped to catch my breath and continued on, getting rid of any Grunts that were there. I exited the cave.

I found myself back outside on the east side of the mountain. I trudged through the snow and up to the north side of the mountain. I continued to the northwest side and entered a hidden cave possibly leading to the summit. I continued in some pathway and up a flight of stairs. I defeated all Grunts there and on the next floor as well. And it turns out I was right. I walked up a flight of stairs and found myself at Mt. Coronet's summit. There was a sign there that said, _Spear Pillar is under the investigation of Team Galactic. Do not enter the area as it is very dangerous. Go back now._ I continued on anyway. Standing there, guarding the pathway up to where Cyrus was gathering energy was the two Commanders, Mars and Jupiter. They saw me and blocked the way, but I pushed them both to the ground. I advanced on Cyrus who had a bandage around his head.

"CYRUS! WHAT DID I TELL YOU, YOU ASSHOLE?!"

"I'm sorry, did I hear something just now? Oh, it must've been my imagination."

"I KNOW YOU CAN HEAR ME, DICKBAG! STOP THIS INSTANT OR ELSE I'LL TEAR YOUR HEAD OFF-"

"You'll do nothing of the sort! All is ready. It's time for this to end and for the new world to begin. The power of the Red Chain I now wield shall now call forth the mythical Pokémon and create this new world!"

Suddenly, a red ring suddenly formed around Cyrus, causing two dark portals to open and call forth the two mythical Pokémon of Sinnoh! I was astonished!

"Come Dialga, master and creator of time! Come Palkia, master and creator of space! I have long awaited this very moment. It is time to rid the universe of this ugly, incomplete world and create a new! I will reset everything to zero. Nothing as vague as human imperfection shall remain!"

Suddenly, three glowing lights appeared in the sky, swirling around Spear Pillar.

"It's just as I expected. The being of emotion, the being of willpower, and the being of knowledge. How pitiful. They intend to save the Sinnoh Region. But they cannot do such a thing, not when both Dialga and Palkia are here. But now," Cyrus turned to face me. "Vincent. You will be forgiven for all you have done, despite trying to botch all my plans. After all, there will remain no spirit when I am finished. The spirit from you, your Pokémon and those you love, they will all be ripped from you, from everyone!"

"NO! I WON'T LET YOU WIN! I WILL PROTECT THIS REGION, NO, THIS WHOLE WORLD FROM EVIL, FROM THE LIKES OF YOU! I WON'T FUCKING HAVE IT! I LET YOU GO ONCE, BUT I WON'T LET YOU GO AGAIN! I'M DONE!

Suddenly, a dark aura fell around the area and a strange force seemed to distort time and space itself.

"What- what is this power? Something is enraged..."

Another portal appeared in front of Cyrus, but this time, it was pitch black, blacker than black itself. Then, two black eyes appeared in the void.

"Interesting... so there is a Pokémon that can only appear as a shadow. But it is useless..." Two enormous wings rose out of the void, along with a large, shadowy figure with glowing red eyes. "I-I w-won't have any m-m-more i-interf-f-f-fererere..." Cyrus was shaking at the sight of the shadowy monster, which was changing the shape of its wings and...

"GWAAAAH!" The monster charged forward, angrily. Both Cyrus and I closed our eyes and shielded with our arms whatever was coming out of the void. Darkness fell briefly, and when I opened my eyes, everything around me was distorted. Every single pillar on the summit was bent impossibly and in the portal in front of me and Cyrus was the entrance to another world. The three beings that were swirling in the sky entered the portal to the other world, one by one. Cyrus had done it. He made his dream become a reality, but he also crossed the line. He crossed _my_ line. I felt rage building up inside me. It was like a boiling kettle, but a billion times hotter and more intense. My rage was burning a million times hotter than the Sun. It was going higher, and higher, and higher until...!

"RRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRGGH! **_YOU'VE DONE IT NOW, CYRUS! YOU'VE CROSSED THE LINE!_** AAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRGGGG!" I tackled Cyrus with all my might and strength and pushed him into the other world.

The last thing I heard before tackling Cyrus into the portal was Cynthia's voice screaming:

"No! STOOOOOP!"


	16. Chapter 16: The Distortion

VOOOOOOOOSSSSSSHH! I tackled Cyrus into the portal with all my strength. Cyrus tried to get free of my grasp, struggling, squirming, and even trying to punch me in the face which resulted in him breaking his left hand. We landed on the other side of the portal and I immediately started beating the shit out of Cyrus, but this time, I was actually gonna kill him. He wanted a whole world to himself? Fine. He would get his wish in hell.

"THIS IS FOR BEING AN ASSHOLE! (Whack) THIS IS FOR BEING SELF-RIGHTEOUS! (Whack) THIS IS FOR BEING A POWER-HUNGRY NARCISSIST! (Whack-whack) THIS IS FOR GETTING ON MY NERVES! (Whack)" I kept on going for everything he pissed me off for until his bandages fell off and he was a mangled, bloody, heavily battered mess. His mouth was foaming with blood and he had a black eye with some of his teeth gone and the rest colored a deep-red hue. I punched him for every breath he took, for every movement he made, as hard as I could. Unfortunately for me, Cynthia came out of the portal and dragged me back.

"Stop beating on him! He doesn't deserve it! Forgive him!"

"No... I can't! I won't! The only thing he deserves DEATH!"

"Stop! Calm down! He's a human too, remember? You don't have to kill-"

"LET GO OF ME! ARGH!" I freed myself from Cynthia's grasp but I didn't advance on Cyrus yet.

"Gyarados! Block the way! Don't let Cyrus escape! Cyrus. If you make one movement or comment, I will KILL YOU!" I sent out Gyarados to prevent Cyrus from running and turned to Cynthia. "Do you not realize the dire situation this man has put us in?! This idiot, so hungry for power, went as far as to summon not one, not two, but all three of the ancient mythical Pokémon!"

"But-"

"I'm not done! He and his group of bandits stole energy, Pokémon, and even a freakin' sign from a statue for crying out loud, and also got beaten up and threatened by me! And now he has the balls to continue on with his plan?! Does he ever give up? Does he ever stop his reign of terror? No! Getting beaten up by me wasn't enough to stop him, and I'll bet if I do it again and 'forgive him', he'll keep on going with his stupid master plan and we'll all die!"

"Yeah, but-"

"No! 'But' nothing! He wants all the power to himself, and he'll eliminate anyone who stands in his way! But not me. I started training to become the strongest so I could put a stop to people like him! So I could put a stop to evil! I want to avenge my father's death, no, I will avenge my father's death!" Suddenly, I heard a swift whoosh sound behind me and looked over my shoulder. With lightning-quick reflexes, I reached up to catch whatever was flying at me...

... but I wasn't quick enough.

The next thing I knew, I was engulfed in a strange red light and I was transported somewhere. Somewhere odd, somewhere peculiar. I didn't know where I was at first, but then I saw that I was back in Twinleaf Town. I could smell the pine and the fresh air. I heard faint voices in the distance, shouting, or something. As I was walking, I suddenly hit a wall, or invisible barrier. I pushed against it but I couldn't get past. I didn't know why this was happening or where I was. I looked up, and in the sky, I saw the clouds, which looked rather holographic and round, and then, to my horror, I realized:

I was trapped inside a Pokéball.

I didn't know how to get out. I heard the muffled voices and realized they must be Cyrus and Cynthia. I needed to get out of there, quick! I looked at the barrier and then behind me. Behind me was the entrance to Route 201. I started walking toward Route 201 and found a barrier to be at the entrance as well. But I noticed the voices got louder as well and figured the exit might be there. So I backed up, and then rammed into the barrier with Titanium Fist. The barrier shook. The whole inside of the ball shook. I rammed into it again, and I got the same result, except this time, the projected image of Route 201 looked a little distorted. I tried one more time and...

In a bright glowing light, I rammed out of the exit to the Pokéball and found myself standing where I used to be before I was captured. Cynthia's face was utter astonishment. Cyrus' was utter disbelief and horror.

"I-it can't be! That's impossible! You broke out of a Pokéball after you were already caught! And not just any old ball, the Master Ball, to top it off!"

"Uh, what the hell are you even saying?"

"The Master Ball is an ultimate ball that can catch any kind of Pokémon, regardless of them being half-human. It's supposed to catch any Pokémon without fail, meaning the Pokémon cannot escape, like ever! And you just did! Right before my eyes! That's unbelievable!"

I picked up the Master Ball off of the ground. "So it can catch any Pokémon without fail, huh? This could come in handy."

"Wait! You cannot reuse it!"

"Screw the rules, old man! You can't tell me what I can and can't do. If I wanna reuse it, I'll find a way to. Now where was I before? I forget. But in the meantime, I want you to get out of here. Got it? SCRAM!" Cyrus ran ahead. I turned to Cynthia.

"Cynthia. Listen to me. I don't want you to stop me if I get rid of him. Do you understand what you just saw?"

"Yes, but must you kill? I see your point in that he won't stop his evil destruction, but do you have to kill him?"

"... Yes. I must."

So, Cynthia saw no need to argue with me and she went ahead and told me to follow her. I followed her down a pathway in the weird world. I asked her what this place was and she said that we were in the Distortion World. She ran up a wall and I did the same, expecting to fall into the abyss. But I landed on the platform that Cynthia was on, on my face. It was like gravity had changed entirely. We continued on through the strange world. Along the way, I saw the three beings of creation, Uxie, Azelf, and Mespirit were waiting next to some pits to place boulders into. After going all around the Distortion World, looking for boulders, the three beings left. I continued forth.

I came to a long pathway leading out into the open space. I was, of course stopped by Cyrus. I defeated his Pokémon with no problem and then I proceeded to kick him off the side of the platform. His hand caught the very edge. He cried out for help and held on for dear life. I began to let his fingers slip off the edge until he was hanging by one arm. He yelled, "Please! Help me! I see the error of my ways now! Please! Give me one more chance! I swear on my life, I will never be evil again! If I become evil again, you may kill me! But I'm begging you! Please! Believe me! Save me!" I gave it some thought. Don't worry, I'm not completely black hearted. At first, I was really tempted to push him over and end his life, once and for all. But then, my mind completely changed. Instead of pushing him over the edge, I put myself in his shoes. For the first time, I learned that people can change. I learned that even the most black hearted, evil, selfish people have some good in them.

I put my hand over the edge to Cyrus who was now crying, most sorrowfully. He looked up at me and saw my outstretched hand.

"You mean it? You're not going to fool me?"

"Listen Cyrus. I don't fool people. I'm not a child. I don't like to pull tricks and fool people." I said, pulling Cyrus up with all my strength. "I also despise evil people. So what I want you to do is to go on, living a normal, everyday life. Accept how the world is imperfect and it will always be like that. You don't have to like it, but you just have to learn to accept it."

"I will. I have changed for the better, and I always will be. I swear to never be evil again! Thank you! Goodbye!" called Cyrus, walking away, waving goodbye. I felt a surge of happiness when that happened. It was the first time I ever felt really happy. It felt really good inside, like I had changed as well.

But back to business. Time to put Earth back to normal.

I walked bravely along the pathway and saw something flash by. I continued on and a few seconds later, I saw it again. I made it to the end of the pathway and in front of me appeared the shadow Pokémon, Giratina. It disappeared in front of my eyes. I didn't see where it went. I readied the Master Ball. Suddenly behind me, Giratina appeared, rushing at me. I threw the Master Ball at it, praying with all my might that it wouldn't fall over the edge, and...

FWOOSH!

Giratina was safely encapsulated inside the ball. But would it be able to escape?

The ball wiggled once...

The ball wiggled twice...

The ball wiggled a third time, and...

Click!

Just as I expected. I picked up the ball. Cynthia came up behind me. She commended me for catching the Pokémon and pointed to the portal that had appeared. Cynthia entered the portal first, and I followed, back to the regular world. Back to the world I knew and loved.

Back to the world I'd just saved from destruction.


	17. Chapter 17: The Sun

VWOOOSH! I landed, on my face, back in the regular world. But where the hell was I? The sun was rising over the trees with an orange flare, which lit up the sky like a torch in a cave. A very dark cave with lots of little fireflies. The cave was disappearing, though. I lifted my head up and saw Cynthia standing there.

"Oh, you're here." Cynthia pulled me up. Once I was able to stand, I saw a large hot spring in front of me. "Oh, it's... this place..." said Cynthia almost in disgust.

"What is this place, though?"

"It's the Sendoff Spring. It's said to somehow lead to the great beyond..."

"Or, the Distortion World. Yeah, I wouldn't necessarily call that place great."

"Yeah, me neither... oh...! I'm so sincerely sorry! You... you're incredible! You are a fantastic trainer! I will say this on behalf of all Sinnoh: Thank you!"

"For what? All I did was stop Giratina from distorting our world."

"No, not only that, you finally learned an act of forgiveness..."

"...! Oh right! I almost forgot about that!"

"You showed great courage, forgiveness, and kindness. You do have what it takes to be the ultimate trainer!"

"Woah, woah, wait a second! Did you doubt me?"

"Oh, no, no! Quite the opposite, actually. I believed in you, I believed that you weren't completely black hearted. I wasn't going to give up that thought, no matter what. Even if you caused a genocide, I wouldn't change my thoughts about you to save my life! You changed those thoughts for me, though! Thank you, thank you..." She leaned forward and hugged me. I was kind of startled by the sudden action, but I hugged her back. "You are a true hero. A true hero doesn't get that title from just saving lives or defeating evil, a true hero gets his title from showing great acts of courage, forgiveness, kindness, bravery, all of that. And you did! That's what makes you a true hero. You have good in you after all."

"Um, thank you, Cynthia." She let go and she waved goodbye as I climbed the rock wall and exited the spring and returned back to the world I knew, back to society.

The sun was rising beautifully in the east. I found myself to be on Route 214, back on the road to victory. I continued south until I reached Hotel Grand Lake. I noticed that the guy who was blocking the path out to the east route wasn't there anymore. I concluded that Sunyshore City must be back to normal after the Team Galactic incident. Seeing as there was no guy there, I saw it as my opportunity to take my very first step onto this new route. I saw a sign further up ahead which told me that I was on Route 222.

"YAHOO! I've done it! I'm on my way to victory! WOOHOO!" I ran around the route, admiring the scenery, taking in the new air that was the sea air, fighting trainers, and encountering new Pokémon. I stayed on the route for a while until the sun was high in the sky. The sun was bright, it was beautiful. Once I was done though, I exited east to the final city of Sinnoh, Sunyshore City.

Sunyshore City. Just the name alone sounds nice and warming. There was quite a lot to see in the medium-sized coastal city. Well, first of all, there was the regular Pokémon Center and Pokémart, which I went to first. To the northwest of the Pokémart was a festive market. And holy shit, you wouldn't believe how much stuff they had there. It was a very friendly market. There was loud, cheery music playing with lots of vendors shouting to buy their merchandise and other friendly chatter. They were selling regular old stuff, like Pokéballs, potions, repels, and stationery, which kind of defeated the purpose of the Pokémart I was just at. But then they had lots of Pokémon merchandise, like Pokémon backpacks and bags, hats, artwork, and even Pokémon Cards. Huh. When I was done looking at stuff, I went to go look at other things that Sunyshore City had to offer. To the east, there was a weird Pokémon statue and to the southeast (I mean, it is a coastal city for crying out loud). To the north, there was a sandy shore. Standing there was a girl in a white dress. I approached the girl who I heard talking to herself.

"I wonder when he'll be back from the lighthouse. He should be back by now."

"Hello."

"Oh, uh, hi. Sorry, I was just talking to myself. I probably shouldn't do that..."

"Not a problem, miss. By the way, what's your name?"

"I'm Jasmine. You?"

"I'm Vincent, but you can call me Vinny. I'm training to become the strongest person in the world. I just so happen to be a half-Charizard. See?" I showed her my Flame Ball.

"Interesting. I'm a gym leader, from another region called Johto."

"Oh yeah. I've heard of it."

"It's quite nice, actually. I'm here just to visit Volkner, though. But he's suffering from depression. I'm doing all I can to help."

"Are you two, like, besties or something?"

"He's, um, sort of my boyfriend."

"Sort of? Either he is or he isn't."

"Oh. He is."

"Why is he depressed anyway? Where is he?"

"He's on the top of the lighthouse, and the reason he's depressed is because there hasn't been too many trainers around lately, so he's lost his quote unquote 'spark' for battle. So ever since then, he's been depressed."

"Man, poor guy. Don't worry, I'll help him get his spark back! I'll give him such an energizing battle that his spark will turn into a lightning bolt!"

"You'll do that?"

"Yeah! I'll give him the battle of a lifetime!"

"Oh, thank you so much! I can't thank you enough."

So I set off towards the lighthouse and took the elevator all the way to the top. I got a little dizzy, because I was acrophobic. On top of the lighthouse, there was a sailor and a youngster looking out into the distance. Probably father and son. Then I saw him. Volkner. He was sitting in a chair and looking sadly into the distance, longing for something.

"Haaaaahhh... if only there was someone... just anyone... a battle is all I need, but no one comes here these days..." He let out a huge sigh. I sat down next to him.

"Hey, man. You alright?"

"No... I... I'm not. No one ever comes to the gym anymore."

"Well, I think I can help you. I'm a new challenger."

"Oh, really? I just renovated the gym. I've no need to be here anymore. More than anything, I want a battle that will thrill me again. So, as the toughest gym leader in Sinnoh, I'm going to unleash everything in my arsenal on you. I won't hold back." He left, looking a bit more happy.

I looked out the binoculars in the lighthouse and saw the most beautiful thing: the Pokémon League. I was almost there, almost to victory, almost the champion.

I made my way to the gym across the solar panel walkways and saw a man with a red afro standing in front of the gym.

"Um, who are you?" I asked.

"I'm Flint, Volkner's friend. So, I see he's finally come back from the lighthouse. Is this your doing?"

"Oh, yeah, I motivated him- oof" Flint patted me on the back rather hard, but hurting his hand in the process because of my bones.

"Good job, little dude! Now, I want you to go in there and give him a battle so energetic that it'll rekindle his passion for battle! I'll see you around, um, I didn't catch your name."

"Vinny. Call me Vinny."

"Okay. Got it. I'll remember. See you at the Pokémon League!" He walked away, whistling.

I entered the gym and made my way around the gears and cogs in the gym. I fought every trainer in that gym and with my Pokémon as well. Gyarados and Fearow would've been at a disadvantage, and Pikachu's attacks wouldn't be that powerful against Electric types. But Pupitar was very helpful, in that his attacks were rock and ground type attacks, and he could wipe out all electric types with Earthquake. I had my fire attacks which worked alright against the electric types. Finally, I got to Volkner. He looked pretty eager for a fight, as he didn't talk much and just sent out his Pokémon. First, a Jolteon, then a Raichu, and then a Luxray. I easily defeated those tough Pokémon with Pupitar, but there was one more Pokémon. Volkner, now very energized, sent out his final Pokémon, Electrive. Pupitar wasn't so easily taken down by Electrive's attacks, in which it returned the favor by letting out an even stronger Earthquake than before and after the attack, Pupitar evolved into a Tyranitar! I guess all that training payed off, huh? Volkner wasn't upset that he lost, but rather the opposite. He was happier than a king. He gave me the Sunyshore City Beacon Badge and TM57, Charge Beam. He told me of the Pokémon league and how tough it was and that I should prepare for it. I told him that he shouldn't always stay at the gym and travel to sustain his passion for battle. I exited the gym and walked up to the shore up north and saw Jasmine still standing there. I told her of me defeating Volkner and restoring his passion for battle. She seemed pretty happy about it and gave me HM07, Waterfall and said it was essential if I wanted to reach the Pokémon League. I thanked her and headed north to victory.

I surfed north along Route 223, battling every trainer there to toughen up. I also had Tyranitar swim next to me while I surfed on Gyarados to build up his resistance to Water-type attacks. Soon, we got to Victory Road. I went to seek out every single trainer there to fight them and also toughen up my own Pokémon for the Pokémon League. And soon enough, I got there. I actually took so long in Victory Road that it was nighttime. The Pokémon League was on top of a tall cliff with a waterfall leading up to it. I had Gyarados surf up the waterfall and when I got to the top, I entered the Pokémon League.

Victory was within my grasp.


	18. Chapter 18: The Four

I was ready. I had trained my Pokémon so hard in Victory Road that they were more than ready. I walked into the Pokémon League building, bought some things I would need for this final stretch. After I stocked up on items, I marched up to the door leading to the Pokémon League challenge. There was an Ace Trainer standing in front of the doorway who asked to check each of my badges up to that point.

"Here. Let me see your Trainer Case. Now let's see...

Oreburgh City's Coal Badge.

Eterna City's Forest Badge.

Veilstone City's Cobble Badge.

Pastoria City's Fen Badge.

Hearthome City's Relic Badge.

Canalave City's Mine Badge.

Snowpoint City's Icicle Badge.

... and finally, Sunyshore City's Beacon Badge.

Well, you are officially qualified to challenge the Elite Four! So, be courageous and go for it! Good luck!" She stepped aside and I took a brave step forward.

The doors closed behind me and I stepped onto the elevator and walked down the path to the first room. I walked into the large room. It smelled like Eterna Forest. I had a flashback of Eterna Forest and reflected on my memories. I talked to the young man who was waiting to challenge me.

"Hello, trainer! Welcome to the Pokémon League! I'm Aaron of the Elite Four. It's very nice to meet you, challenger." He shook my hand.

"Call me Vinny."

"Okay. Nice to meet you, Vinny. You know me. Oh, I should explain, I'm a huge fan of Bug-type Pokémon. Bug-type Pokémon are nasty-mean, yet they're beautiful too... do you know why I take on challengers here?"

"Uh, no. Why do you?"

"It's because I want to become perfect, just like my bug Pokémon."

"Okay, I'll make you perfect! Go, Fearow!"

"Go, Yanmega!"

"Fearow, Fly!" Fearow flew up high so that Yanmega couldn't reach him.

"Yanmega, Double Team! Make it hard for Fearow to hit!" Yanmega moved quickly, creating clones of itself. The clones were almost perfect. I couldn't tell apart from the clones.

"Fearow! Remember your training! Dive down!" Fearow spiraled down and hit Yanmega with full force, KO'ing it.

"Yanmega, return! Go, Scizor!" He sent out his Scizor, which looked like no big deal.

"Alright, I'll take this one on! Hey Aaron, watch this!" I formed a Flame Ball in my hands and kept charging it, making it larger while dodging Scizor's attacks.

"Mega Flame Ball!" I fired the ball of fire right at Scizor, who was four times weak to my intense fire attack. Scizor fainted and was returned.

"Go, Vespiquen!" A large bee-like Pokémon appeared out of a ray of light.

"Alright, go Pikachu!" Pikachu came out of his ball with tremendous speed, making it impossible to track him. "Use Thunderbolt!" "Defend Order, Vespiquen!" A large amount of bees swarmed around Vespiquen, making a barrier. Pikachu jumped up in the air and unleashed a large beam of electricity on Vespiquen. However, Vespiquen wasn't done.

"Use Attack Order, Vespiquen!"

"Dodge, Pikachu! Use Quick Attack!" The swarm of bees chased Pikachu, but Pikachu was too fast for the bees and bashed Vespiquen in the side. Vespiquen fainted and returned.

"Go, Heracross!"

"Come on back out, Fearow!"

"Heracross! Use Stone Edge!" Heracross sent many sharp-edged stones flying at Fearow at high speed. Fearow was hit by the super effective attack, but didn't faint.

"Great job defending, Fearow! Use Drill Peck!" Fearow flew at Heracross and began pecking at it very fast. Heracross was four times weak to the super effective attack and fainted.

"This is my last Pokémon. Go, Drapion!"

"Fearow, Use Drill Peck again!" Fearow flew at Drapion at high speed. "Drapion! Use Ice Fang!" Drapion attacked Fearow first with icy jaws in which Fearow fainted.

"Dammit. Fine! Flare Burst!" A beam of fire shot out through my hands and hit Drapion. Drapion fainted under the force of the attack. I had won!

"Wow. That was amazing. I will now concede defeat. But do you now see how great Bug-type Pokémon can be?"

"Yeah. To be honest, I did think Bug-types were weak at first, but now I can see that I was wrong."

"Yes. I also hope you realize what you are up against in the Pokémon League. Battling is a deep and complex affair..."

"Yes, I can see that now."

He handed me prize money. "Welp, I lost with my beautiful Bug-type Pokémon, because I wasn't good enough... that's it! Back to training camp I go! Let's hear it from me... No, that was wrong of me. Ahem. Anyway, go to the next room." He waved me goodbye as I walked into the next room. I stepped on the elevator and walked down the hall to the next room of the Pokémon League. The next room was as big as the last room and was filled with rock formations and slabs of stone. It reminded me of the mountain range of Route 210. I had a flashback and reflected on my memories. In the middle of the stadium was a small, old woman. I assumed she used Rock or Ground-type Pokémon.

"Well, well. You're quite the adorable trainer, but you've also got a spine. Ahaha! I'm Bertha! And you are?"

"I'm Vinny."

"Well then, Vinny, I think you should know that I have a preference for Ground-type Pokémon." I knew it! said my inner-self. "Well then, would you show this old lady how much you've learned up to this point?"

"Okay! Let's do this! Go, Gyarados!"

"Go, Whiscash! Use Sandstorm!"

"Use Hydro Pump! Then Surf!" Gyarados shot out a blast of water at Whiscash and followed up by flooding the stadium with water and crashing down on Whiscash with his whole body. Yeah, I think Whiscash fainted.

"Whiscash, return! Go, Gliscor!" She sent out her Gliscor. "Use Waterfall!" "Gliscor, use Thunder Fang!" Gyarados shot a spray of water out of his mouth and slapped gliscor with his tail. Gliscor, before it fainted, gathered energy into its fangs and bit down of Gyarados' tail, knocking Gyarados out along with Gliscor.

"Come back, Gliscor!"

"You did well, Gyarados. Return!"

"Alright Hippowdon, You're up!"

"Titanium Fist!" My fist became harder than steel, resulting in Hippowdon not being in the stadium for long.

Next, Bertha sent out Golem. I used another Titanium Fist. Turns out, Golem didn't do so hot, either.

Finally, Bertha sent out her last Pokémon, a Rhyperior. Quickly, I fed a Revive to Gyarados and he seemed to have the energy to fight. He used Hydro Pump one more time and knocked out Rhyperior.

"Well child, I must say, that was most impressive. Your Pokémon believed in you and did their best to earn you the win. Even though I've lost, I find myself with this silly grin!" She handed me some prize money. "You know, you're quite something. I like how you and your Pokémon earned the win by working as one. That's what makes you so strong! Ahahaha! I think you can go as far as you want." I exited through the doors, stepped on the elevator and walked down the hall to the next room. The next room was filled with fire pits. It was warm and soothing. It reminded me of the warmth of the sun when I was flying on Fearow through the sky. I had a flashback and reflected on my memories. I walked up to Flint.

"Hey, I've been waitin' for you, trainer! Uh, Vinny, right? Yeah! Flint the master of fire is up next! By the way, I heard from Volkner what you did in Sunyshore. You managed to light a fire in that guy's heart again. How could you not look forward to facing me in battle?"

"You did tell me, 'See you at the Pokémon League.' so I was looking forward to defeating you in battle with my all-powerful Pokémon!"

"You must realize, battles are clashes of the burning spirit of Pokémon. Battles aren't about appearances of what's weak or strong. It all comes down to whether the combatants can burn hot and bright or not."

"Oh, don't worry! My spirit burns with my Pokémon as one! I'll give you an even more intense battle that I did with Volkner! Go! Tyranitar!" "Go, Houndoom!"

"Tyranitar, use Rock Slide!" "Houndoom, Sludge Bomb!" Houndoom spit out a large spray of poison and hit Tyranitar head-on. Tyranitar produced some mud balls from his body, hardened them, and dropped them down on Houndoom. Houndoom fainted from the attack and returned.

"Go, Flareon!"

"Alright, Gyarados, take care of this one!" I sent out Gyarados and gave him a Hyper Potion. "Alright, hit em' with a Hydro Pump!" "Giga Impact!" Flareon charged forward with full-force. Gyarados got out of the way just in time and hit Flareon with a blast of water. Flareon fainted and returned. Next, Flint sent out Rapidash. "Gyarados, Waterfall!" "Sunny Day!" Rapidash spewed out a blast of fire and started glowing extremely bright. Gyarados shot out a blast of water and slapped Rapidash with his tail. Rapidash stopped glowing, an indication that Rapidash was down. Rapidash was returned and Flint sent out an Infernape.

"Alright Gyarados, you up to fight this one?" Gyarados nodded. "Infernape, Thunderpunch!" Infernape's fist became a ball of lightning and it rushed towards Gyarados with amazing speed. "Gyarados, dodge it and put out his fire with Surf!" Gyarados barely missed the ball of electricity and flooded the stadium with water. Infernape was down. Finally, Flint sent out a Magmortar.

"Okay, Gyarados. Take out this one quickly before you get damaged!" "Thunderbolt, Magmortar!" Magmortar sent out a bolt of electricity at Gyarados, severely damaging him. So much for, 'before you get damaged'. "Hang in there, Gyarados!" Quickly thinking, I sprayed Gyarados with a Hyper Potion. "Now Hydro Pump!" Gyarados sprayed out a blast of water at Magmortar, and that was it. I had won again.

"...! I don't believe it! I lost! I didn't take you for granted, but I never expected you to win! I didn't even consider it!"

"Well now, that's almost insulting. You're calling me weak?"

"No, it's just that not many people can defeat me, let alone even get to me. You... you're amazing! I'm blown away by this! You and your Pokémon are hot stuff!"

So I moved on through the doorway behind Flint. I stepped on the elevator and down the hallway to the next room. In the next room, there were glowing white orbs in each corner of the room, but the rest of the room was rather dark and eerie and it reminded me of the darkness of the Distortion World. I had a flashback and reflected on my memories. I walked up to the next and last guy of the Elite Four.

"Ah, hello. You timed your arrival well. I've just finished reading a book, you see. Allow me to introduce myself. I am Lucian of the Elite Four. I am the user of Psychic type Pokémon. I must say, you've already proven yourself to be outstanding by coming this far. But I will not be taken down so easily. They say I am the toughest of the Elite Four. However, I'm afraid I will have to go all out against you to live up to that reputation. Few have beaten me, but still, I will not hold back."

"Okay, then. In order to prove myself the strongest, I will defeat you! I'll defeat your Pokémon with my own power!"

"Your own power...? Are you perhaps a half-Pokémon?"

"That's right. I will become stronger by defeating you and becoming the champion of Sinnoh!"

Not saying anything else, Lucian sent out his first Pokémon.

"Go, Mr. Mime."

"Alright! Let's do this!"

"Show me what you've got. Psychic." Mr. Mime started controlling me with its psychic powers and gave me a massive headache.

"AAUUGH!" The pain was unbearable. It was about 50 times worse that using a TM. I focused my fire power into my feet and rushed at Mr. Mime. "Flame Kick!" I sent Mr. Mime flying back into the wall, KO'ing it.

"Mr. Mime, return! Go, Espeon!" Lucian sent out his next Pokémon. "Use Quick Attack!" The cat rushed at me with awesome speed, but it backfired with me using Mega Flame Ball.

"Espeon, return! Go, Bronzong!" Instantly, I used Flare Burst and knocked out Bronzong with my super effective attack.

"Arrgh, Go, Alakazam! Use Focus Blast!" Alakazam concentrated... and then, it let out a powerful attack. I quickly dodged and then used Titanium Fist. Alakazam flew across the room and possibly fainted. Nah, I don't think so. Not after a really powerful attack like that.

"Alakazam, return!"

"Well my friend, you have one Pokémon left. Are you gonna keep underestimating me?"

"... you're very strong. I'm no match for you. However! I mustn't give up, even if it means losing to a powerhouse like you! Go, Gallade! Use Stone Edge! I won't hold back, even if you're human." Gallade formed little stones and sent them flying at me at high speed. I shielded with my arms, which got cut in the process. Blood ran down my arms. Lucian looked away and whispered, "I'm sorry..."

"Heheh, don't be sorry. This, I *Ow* enjoy. It doesn't *Gasp* hurt at all." Blood was dripping out of my mouth now. "Now come on! Use your strongest attacks on me. After all, you were the one who said you weren't going to hold back. So come on. What are you waiting for?"

"Gallade! Use Drain Punch!" Gallade dashed at me and punched me with immense force. I caught its fist in my hand, but at the same time, I felt my energy being drained out of me"

"AAAARRRGGH! I can't take this... pain! Mega Flame Ball!" With my other hand, I hit Gallade across the face and sent it flying. Lucian returned Gallade and stood there, dumbfounded.

"Incredible! Your power is real. I understand now. Beating the other three was no fluke." Lucian walked over to me and placed a hand on my shoulder. "Congratulations trainer-"

"Vinny."

"Congratulations, Vinny. You have now defeated the Elite Four. However, that doesn't mean you're done with the Pokémon League. Behind that door," He pointed to the door. "Remains the champion. I must warn you, defeating the champion is no walk in the park. She's stronger than all of us combined, and even some of the most skilled trainers who have defeated me could not defeat her. But, you may stand a chance. So, give it your all. Good luck, Vinny." Bravely, I walked through the door and took the elevator up. As I walked down the very long hallway, I reflected on my entire journey, all my training, all my power. I did have what it took.

I was ready to give it my all, to go beyond, and push beyond my limits.


	19. Chapter 19: The Champion

I never thought about who the champion of Sinnoh might be, but when I stepped through the door to the final room, I was totally taken by surprise.

It was Cynthia.

"Hello Vincent."

"Buh-but, you...! Is... are you actually the Sinnoh Champion? I never thought you would be the Champion! That day we met in Eterna City, you told me you were a trainer, but it never even once crossed my mind that you were the champion."

"I had a feeling that you would come to challenge me. I saw the burning passion for battle in your eyes and I knew that one day you would come here. It's actually quite amazing, you took on the whole Elite Four in one try. And yet you seem completely fine. In fact, you seem like you're bursting with tremendous energy. But," She suddenly got very serious. "Let's get on with why you're here. I Cynthia, champion of the Sinnoh League accept your challenge! There won't be any letup from me!" She equipped a Pokéball and hurled it into the stadium. "Spiritomb, show him what you've got! Use Dark Pulse!" Spiritomb let out a dark attack that coursed through my body and sent me sprawling to the floor.

"Ugh... hahahahaha... so an intense battle is what you want? Alright! I'll give you the most intense battle ever and I will win! Flame Ball, Charge!" I started charging a Flame Ball in my hands to the size of a basketball. I faked a throw at Spiritomb. "Spiritomb, dodge it! Use Psychic!" Spiritomb flew back and started to attack.

"Nope." I rushed up to it and used my real attack. "Mega... Flame Ball!" I smashed the ball of fire in Spiritomb's face and followed it up with a Flame Kick, in which Spiritomb fainted.

"Fascinating... well, let's see how you hold up against this one! Go, Garchomp!" Cynthia sent out Garchomp and I sent out Gyarados.

"I'll have you know that I actually have Pokémon too! Gyarados, use Ice Fang!" Gyarados' fangs turned icy cold as he rushed towards Garchomp at amazing speed and chomped down on Garchomp's neck and inflicted a lot of damage.

"Garchomp, use Giga Impact!" Garchomp rushed forward at blinding speed and hit Gyarados with immense force. Gyarados was thrown back, but he was still conscious.

"That's it, Gyarados! Keep it up! Here," I gave him a Hyper Potion and he seemed much better. "Now go get 'em! Use Ice Fang again!" Gyarados rushed at Garchomp again and chomped his neck, hard. Garchomp fell to the ground, unconscious. Cynthia returned Garchomp and sent out a Lucario. I sent out Fearow. "Fearow, use Fly!" Fearow flew up high, which saved him from getting hurt. "Great! Now dive down!" "Dodge it, Lucario! Use Aura Sphere!" Fearow homed in on Lucario and hit it head-on, which didn't let Lucario use its attack. "Now use Drill Peck!" Fearow quickly obeyed and pecked all over Lucario, causing it to faint.

"Come back, Lucario! You're very good, Vinny. But let's see if you can manage this one! Togekiss, you're up!" She sent out Togekiss and I sent out Pikachu.

"Togekiss, Water Pulse!" A bubble of water formed around Togekiss as it started its attack.

"Pikachu quick, use Thunder!" With decent accuracy, Pikachu sent an enormous bolt of lightning down onto himself and then sent it at the bubble, while also dodging a ring of water being shot at him. The electricity coursed through the bubble and Togekiss fell to the ground, unconscious and smoking.

"Togekiss, come back! Go, Milotic!" Milotic appeared from a burst of light.

"Pikachu, use Thunder!" Pikachu sent a huge bolt of lightning at Milotic, which it dodged.

"Milotic, use Surf!" Milotic sent a giant wave crashing down at Pikachu.

"Pikachu! Use Thunderbolt!" Pikachu sent a bolt of lightning through the wave he was caught in and at Milotic. Milotic fainted from the attack and Cynthia withdrew it.

"I've only got one Pokémon left... I can't remember a time when I was cornered like this! Go, Roserade!" She sent out her last Pokémon. I sent out Tyranitar.

"Tyranitar, use Earthquake!"

"Roserade, use Energy Ball!"

Tyranitar's attack reached Roserade, which took damage, but it returned the favor by hitting Tyranitar with a super effective Energy Ball.

"Use Energy Ball one more time, Roserade!" Roserade didn't give Tyranitar time to react and used Energy Ball once more, knocking out Tyranitar.

"Shit. Fine then! I'll just battle myself." I concentrated my fire power... I focused it into my arms. I intended to ignite my full arms, so I rolled up my sleeves, and I just concentrated...

"Roserade, use Toxic!" Roserade rushed past me and I felt something jab into my arm. The next thing I knew, my system was flowing with poison. It was unbearable. My muscles got tight and I quivered. I kept concentrating, nevertheless.

"Roserade, use Sludge Bomb!" Roserade spewed out a large spray of poison sludge from its mouth at me. Before the sludge could get to me, I sidestepped and then...

"FLAME CROSSCHOP!" I rushed towards Roserade and leaped into the air. My eyes were burning fireballs and my nostrils flared, literally. I held my arms in an X shape and my arms ignited. I cross chopped Roserade with all my strength and the fire exploded into two brilliant waves of fire which spread out on the sides. When the fire subsided, all that was left was Roserade, burnt and fainted. The floor was charred and cratered in from the force of the attack.

I had won the battle. My power was real. I had beaten the champion of Sinnoh. I was the new champion.

"Wow... that was an intense battle. Congratulations Vinny, you are the new champion of Sinnoh..." her voice trailed off as the room began to fade and look fuzzy.

Shit! The poison! I forgot about the poison... Oh god, I'm gonna die... I thought as I fell to the floor. Then everything just went black.

I saw the bright light shining from above. I must be in heaven. Or maybe it's one of those clichés like in the last Harry Potter movie, I thought. No wait, I can't be dead, I won the title of Sinnoh Champion. I gotta open my eyes... I did, and I was still in the same room as before. I saw Cynthia's face above me and in her hand was an empty Antidote bottle.

"Oh! Whew. I thought I lost you. You fainted and then I used this Antidote on you." She showed me the bottle and then helped me to my feet. "I was saying, congratulations. You are now the official Sinnoh League Champion. Come with me. We'll take the lift." I followed her to an elevator. We rose up and entered a door on the top. We walked down a long hallway and ended up in a room with a machine like one of those from the Pokémon Center.

"You have shown outstanding courage and compassion for Pokémon and your own. It is time we recorded your name into the hall of fame. What you are recording here is the memories of your adventure so far."

I placed each of my Pokémon into the machine. Each of the four Pokéballs were scanned and when it was done, I took each of the balls back and put them away. Up on the wall was a picture of each of my Pokémon and then me standing in front of all of them, on fire. I was so happy. I was the official champion of Sinnoh! I had done it. However, I wasn't satisfied. If I wanted to become the strongest of all trainers, then I was gonna keep training until I was not the strongest trainer alive, but the strongest man alive.

I turned to Cynthia. She had a big smile on her face and she shook my hand. Then she gave me a plaque that certified that I was the new champion. I made my way back to the exit of the Pokémon League building and flew back to Sunyshore City. From there, I got on my bicycle and I rode off into the sunrise.

I rode out onto Route 222 and admired the sun. I rode on.

I stopped at Hotel Grand Lake's Seven Stars Restaurant and had breakfast. I exited and rode to Pastoria City.

I got to Pastoria City and rode to the entrance to Route 214 and took a long look into the sunrise. I rode back to H.G.L. and rode north to Veilstone City.

I rode through Veilstone City, just looking at the sun, now rising high into the sky. I excited to Route 215 where it was no longer raining. I continued on north on Route 210 and up to Celestic Town. I looked up into the beautiful blue expanse of the sky and rode back down south to Solaceon Town.

I rode straight through Solaceon Town and continued south onto Route 209. The sun was very high in the sky now.

I rode through Hearthome City's streets and exited out onto Route 208.

I rode through Mt. Coronet and back out to Route 207.

I rode south to Oreburgh City and had lunch at a sandwich place. I rode back up to Route 207 and north through Cycling Road.

I rode through Eterna City's streets and then rode up to the statue. Cyrus had put the sign back on the statue's base with tape. I exited the city and onto Route 205.

It was late afternoon now, and then sun was beginning to set over the west horizon. I made my way around Eterna Forest and back to south Route 205. I passed the Valley Windworks and saw the balloon Pokémon passing overhead.

I entered Floaroma Town and smelled the air. Ahhh, the sweet smell of flowers... I entered Floaroma Meadows and walked around until the sun was setting over the horizon. I made my way back to Route 204, watching the sun set over the horizon completely.

I saw the lights from Jubilife City in the distance. The bright lights shone into the night. I rode into Jubilife City. I saw the big television screen on the Jubilife Radio Station building and they were talking about me defeating the Pokémon League. I continued south to Route 202.

I rode through Sandgem Town and back down the ledge to my home town, Twinleaf Town. The smell of pine filled my nose and I felt at home again.

I walked into my house. Sitting in front of the T.V. was Mom. She was watching the interview with Cynthia about me becoming the new champion of Sinnoh. She turned her head.

"I'm back, Mom."

"Welcome home, Vincent. Oh, I'm so proud of you!" She hugged me for a long time, and I hugged her back. "You did it! You're the champion! Here, go put your stuff in your room. I was making dinner. Come down when you put your stuff away and have some dinner."

I ran upstairs and I turned on the light in my room. I placed the plaque on my dresser and my hat and Trainer's Case with each of my badges in there. _How long did my adventure take?_ I wondered as I stared at the plaque. _I guess it took a few months_ , I concluded as I changed into some house shorts and a t-shirt. It turned out that it took much longer than a few months, almost a year.

Mom and I were eating dinner in front of the T.V. and a commercial came on that I got excited about. It was a commercial for the S.S. Tidal which was coming to Sinnoh.

"Oh, cool! It's going to another region called Hoenn! Mom, this is a big opportunity for me to become stronger! Can I go?"

"I don't know... I mean, Hoenn is very far south of here. It could take a long time to get there. But you seem enthusiastic about it. Hmm... it says that it's departing from Snowpoint City! Wow. That's pretty far up north. Have you been there?"

"Yeah. The seventh gym was actually there. But still, can I go to Hoenn?"

"I'll think about it. But now, it's late. Go up and get ready and go to bed I'll see you in the morning."

"Got it." I hugged her and then went upstairs.

"Good night, my champion."


	20. Chapter 20: The Regions

The first thing I heard was the Starly happily chirping in the trees. I wondered, where am I? I sat up and gathered my thoughts. Oh yeah, that's right! I thought. I'm the Sinnoh champion! I got home late yesterday. I looked on my dresser and saw the plaque and my Trainer Case. I looked out the window and saw my hometown. The sky was a little cloudy, but the right amount of blue filled in the space between the clouds. I walked over to my dresser and pulled on a pair of shorts and a Pokéball shirt.

I walked downstairs and saw mom in the kitchen, drinking tea.

"Good morning, mom."

"Good morning, Vincent. Are you hungry? I can make you some breakfast."

"Sure, mom."

So we ate some breakfast and I brought up the subject of going to Hoenn like I mentioned yesterday.

"Oh, that reminds me. I bought a scarf for you last night. Let me go get it." She walked over to the sofa and brought a bag over. She pulled out a black and red scarf from the bag and gave it to me.

"Well? How is it?"

"I love it! It suits me perfectly!"

"Also, I've decided that you can go to Hoenn. I think it'll be good for you so that you can broaden your horizons."

"Thanks mom."

So we cleaned up breakfast and then she got together stuff for my journey, like clothes or snacks. I hugged her and said goodbye and I left for Snowpoint City. Once Fearow and I landed, I went to the port and saw the S.S. Tidal waiting in the port and a little ticket booth. I paid for a ticket and got on and waited. After I settled into a cabin, the ship set sail for Hoenn. And holy shit, it was a really fast ship. In just two days, the ship reached the port of Slateport City. And everything after that was pretty fast paced.

The Hoenn Region went by in a blur, really. I seeked out and fought every trainer in the entire region and went to different cities, obtaining the badges of the Hoenn League.

Every badge obtained:

Rustboro City's Stone Badge

Dewford Town's Knuckle Badge

Mauville Town's Dynamo Badge

Lavaridge Town's Heat Badge

Petalburg City's Balance Badge

Fortree City's Feather Badge

Mossdeep City's Mind Badge

And Sootopolis City's Rain Badge.

While on my journey, I came across two groups of bad guys named Team Aqua and Team Magma who had really bad motivation. They ended up summoning the two legendary Pokémon of Hoenn, Groudon and Kyogre. It was said that the only thing that could stop the two from fighting for land and water was the third legendary Pokémon, Rayquaza. Team Magma ended up summoning Groudon with the Red Orb, and Aqua with the Blue Orb. I tried my best to catch both of them, but ran out of Pokéballs and subdued them for the time being. I ended the war against the two teams for a world of completely water or completely land and disbanded them altogether.

I even managed to catch some really cool Pokémon. I even caught a Shroomish and evolved it into a Breloom. In the end, I decided to keep it on my team because I liked it. I could've chosen a stronger grass type, but I took a liking for Breloom more.

I made it to the Pokémon League of Hoenn and fought the Elite Four and the champion, Steven and eventually became the champion of Hoenn after five months of training.

However, shortly after becoming the champion of Hoenn, I ran into trouble. I first met a dragon trainer named Zinnia who had plans to summon the mythical Rayquaza. After battling her in a cave west of Dewford Town, she explained that a mysterious asteroid was going to fall and destroy possibly all of the Regions. She had me meet her in the Sky Pillar north of Route 131. The tower was absolutely enormous, but for some reason, it couldn't be seen from anywhere else in Hoenn. It simply was not visible at all.

Zinnia and I climbed the enormous tower, and she told me the story of Rayquaza. At the top, she did some kind of ritual to summon the mythical Pokémon, Rayquaza. She told me to prove myself as a worthy trainer and have a battle with Rayquaza, to prove my strength. Although I had no interest in catching it, I was able to subdue it, leaving it to Zinnia to catch. But just before she could, Rayquaza flew upward and looped back around, picking me up and flying up into the sky. We flew higher and higher into the sky, and the asteroid became visible. Combining our strength, my fire power and Rayquaza's mighty Dragon Pulse, we smashed the asteroid to discover that inside it, was an ancient Pokémon called Deoxys. It started becoming hard to breathe, but I held in my breath and then realized that we were going into space to fight this thing. Deoxys put up a real fight, switching into different forms that increased its capabilities, but I eventually defeated it with the help of Rayquaza. Just as I was beginning to run out of breath, Rayquaza carried me back to Earth, where Zinnia congratulated me for saving the Regions. I was more happy about the fight, though, because Deoxys had put up one hell of a fight.

After the events of Deoxys, I wondered where I would go next. Well, similar to leaving Sinnoh to Hoenn, the ship, Royal Unova was visiting Hoenn. Coincidence? Maybe. I left through Slateport City and got on the Royal Unova to go to, take your best guess, and got ready to do even more training, to see more exotic Pokémon, and become the champion of Unova as well.

xxxx

After a few days of sailing and battling trainers on board the ship, I arrived in Castelia City's port. And damn, Castelia City was even bigger than Hearthome. Anyway, I was finally in Unova. From Castelia, I set out for the first gym because it turns out, that Castelia City was the location of the third gym. So I continued on, seeing new, exotic Pokémon and training intensely alongside my own.

Badges obtained from the Unova League:

Striaton City's Trio Badge

Nacrene City's Basic Badge

Castelia City's Insect Badge

Nimbasa City's Bolt Badge

Driftveil City's Quake Badge

Mistralton City's Jet Badge

Icirrus City's Freeze Badge

And finally, Opelucid City's Legend Badge.

In this region, I came across yet another group of bad guys. They were called Team Plasma and were obviously hell-bent on world domination. Of course they are. Well actually, it turned out that two years before, a kid had defeated Team Plasma and since then, half of them split up to do good, and the others... well, they were still bent on world domination. I did my best to defeat them and disband them for good. After I defeated them, I continued on with my journey and soon made it to the Pokémon League. There, I beat the Elite Four and soon defeated the Unova champion, Alder. He admitted defeat and named me the new champion of Unova. Well, sort of. I told him that I wasn't from Unova and since I was just visiting, I couldn't stay in Unova as the champion. So he just gave me a plaque instead.

A few days after defeating Alder, I returned back to Castelia City's port. I checked a map of the Pokémon Regions and saw that my next destination was the Kalos Region. I waited a bit for another one of those coincidental ships to come to Unova so that I could go to another region. I stayed around the area, training and such for a few days, but after waiting that short amount of time, I saw no ship come in. I grew impatient and eventually heard from a sailor in the harbor that the ship that once sailed from Kalos sunk long ago. So I checked the map of the regions and saw that Kalos appeared to be northwest of Unova over the mountains, so I sent out Fearow and we flew over to the Kalos Region.

"YAAAHOOOOOO!" I yelled as Fearow and I sailed high into the sky. We flew high above the mountain range and to the region called Kalos, northwest of Unova.

"Come on, Fearow! You can do it!" Fearow nodded and flew at high speed, causing me to clutch on even tighter as Fearow gained altitude. Fearow must've been flying for an hour, because he looked as if he was going to collapse.

"Come on! Build up your stamina! We won't have to take boats anymore (because I get seasick)! I believe in you! You just have to believe in yourself!" Suddenly, the region of Kalos appeared through the clouds. "Look Fearow! The Kalos Region! We're here! You can take a rest when we land!" Fearow dived down into a small town with few buildings. Fearow landed, exhausted.

"Alright Fearow, you take a good rest." I returned Fearow to his ball and started a new journey in the amazing region of Kalos. I gotta say, the region was beautiful. Everywhere I went, there were amazing sights that broadened my horizons. Especially Lumiose City. That city was beautiful. At night, the Prism Tower in the center of the city lit up and it could be seen from all around the city, heck, it could be seen from Laverre City up north! But anyway, besides the beauty of the region, I was still serious about my training. I trained really hard with my Pokémon, who were looking stronger than ever. I challenged every trainer I could find and the gyms as well.

The badges I obtained:

Santalune City's Bug Badge

Cyllage City's Cliff Badge

Shalour Town's Rumble Badge

Coumarine City's Plant Badge

Lumiose City's Voltage Badge

Laverre City's Fairy Badge

Anistar City's Psychic Badge

And Snowbelle City's Iceberg Badge.

I also bought some extra clothes from various cities, but in Lumiose City's Boutique Couture, something happened that would change my life.

Walking casually into the Boutique, I was put through a sort of survey, what I liked to call, the "Swag Check", and they finally allowed me to look around, on the second floor though, as the first floor was the women's boutique.

On the second floor, the first thing I noticed was a sweet ass leather jacket, which had been placed at a rather extortionate price. Checking myself out in the mirror, I looked cool, but I noticed something was missing. At first, I couldn't place it, but I realized that it was the hat that didn't match with the jacket. The jacket went well with the scarf, or maybe the other way around, and on top of that a slim pair of dark denim jeans, but I couldn't help but notice that my snapback didn't go with it all. As I searched through the store, I noticed a hat that I really liked. A very dark gray fedora that looked like no one wanted it, or at least hadn't seen it yet. Glancing at the price tag, which was not as much as the jacket, I decided that I wanted the fedora. As I stared at the fedora for what seemed an eternity, I started foreseeing a future where that hat would be my signature look. I switched out my snapback with the fedora, and instantly fell in love with the look. And right there, I bought both the jacket and the hat and walked out of the store feeling like a badass. And with that, I continued on my quest.

In Shalour Town, I discovered that I was able to Mega Evolve using a special stone called a Mega Stone, just like Charizard. I have the Shalour Town Gym Leader Korrina and a couple of scientists to thank for that. However, as I continued training for the next couple of months, I discovered that stone became rendered unnecessary to Mega Evolve. It was only used to introduce me to Mega Evolution, I concluded. _Is this the next step towards becoming the strongest?_ I wondered.

Of course, as you'd expect, there was yet another bad gang in Kalos. They were called Team Flare, and before I go any further, I just wanna say, THEIR UNIFORM AND HAIRCUT LOOKED EVEN DUMBER THAN TEAM GALACTIC. As if that was possible. Well, it is. Anyway, I found out their plans and their secret base in Lumiose City as well. Their operation eventually led me to a Legendary Pokémon called Yveltal whose energy was being drained so that they could use it to activate the Ultimate Weapon and cause a genocide. Wait, the Ultimate Weapon? I remember reading about that. Well, I stopped them from destroying the entire world, but it forced me to leave a giant crater in Geosenge Town.

I continued on like normal after that and eventually made it to the Pokémon League and faced the Elite Four. And then I defeated the champion and entered my name in the Hall of Fame. I was now a certified champion of four regions. Now, there were two more regions to tackle. My adventure so far had taken a whole year and a half, but I wasn't gonna give up. The last regions I had to go to were Kanto and Johto, both being connected. I didn't wait for any ship to come to Kalos. I just flew to Johto on Fearow.


	21. Chapter 21: The Lab

So, Johto was actually east of Unova. It took a few hours, but Fearow was able to fly the long distance without fainting. Johto came up in the distance and I shouted, "Okay Fearow, we're gonna land soon! Dive down!" Fearow dive-bombed down into the region at immense speed. I saw a small town next to a lake and surrounded trees. "Okay Fearow! Let's land here!" Fearow landed in the small town and I returned him to his Pokéball. I stood there for a moment, just taking in the atmosphere. A calm breeze was flowing through the town. Throughout the town were many wind turbines, which made sense. To the west was a lush green route lined with trees. To the east was a lake and a whole route that way. I would go that way later. To the northeast was a colossal mountain capped with snow. _Ideal for training,_ I thought. I didn't know where I was, so I walked up to a sign which read:

 _Newbark Town_

 _Winds of a new beginning_

I looked up at the wind turbines. Yup, seemed about right. There were a few houses in the town and a big building at the north side of the town. I read the sign there and found out that it was a Pokémon Lab. _Ooh, science._ I thought. _I wonder who owns this lab- who the hell is that?_ I looked around the side of the building and saw a boy with red hair peering into the lab.

"So this is the famous Elm Lab..." muttered the boy.

"Hey dude, if you want to know what's inside, maybe you should actually go inside-"

"Hey, what're you looking at? Get out of here!" The boy shoved me back, sending me to the ground.

"Man, fuck you! Who cares about you anyway, with that whack-ass looking haircut!" I entered the lab, ignoring the stupid boy. Holy shit. It seemed that everywhere I went, everything was always bigger.

"Oh! Hello, are you a new trainer?" said a voice. I looked over at the voice and I saw a man in a lab coat. It must've been Elm.

"Are you Professor Elm?"

"Yes I am. Are you a new trainer?"

"In this region, yes. I've traveled a long way to get here. From Sinnoh, specifically."

"Oh, Sinnoh? That's quite a ways from here. Well, if you're looking for a new adventure, I can give you a Pokémon."

"No, that's alright. I already have 5 Pokémon and myself."

"Oh! Are you perhaps...?"

"Yes. I am half-Charizard. I am considered a Fire/Steel-type."

"Interesting. You don't suppose you could do a favor for me, do you?"

"Sure. What do you need?"

"Well see, I'm a Pokémon scientist, and I need to find information about Pokémon. So, I'm hoping that while on your journey you could record what it's like to be a Pokémon."

"Uh, I guess so."

"Thank you, trainer."

"My name is Vinny."

"Oh, um, can you do me another favor? I needed to pick up a Pokémon egg to Mr. Pokémon who lives north of Cherrygrove City, but I'm very busy with my work here, so I can't go. Can you go for me and get the egg? It's rather important for my research."

"Yeah, sure."

"Thank you Vinny."

As Elm went back to his business, I looked out the window and saw the boy still standing there. He noticed I was looking at him and flipped the bird at me. I made the "up yours" gesture and left the lab to the next city.

There wasn't much to see on Route 29, just nature. I passed through Cherrygrove City and continued onto Route 30.

On Route 30 there were a few trainers out and about, training their Pokémon. At one point, I noticed two trainers actually having a battle, while also blocking the route. I continued up northeast on Route 30, eventually reaching Mr. Pokémon's house. He was waiting there to give me the Pokémon egg that Elm was talking about. There was another guy there who said that his name was Oak, or the Pokémon Professor. I told him about me and that I was visiting the region to train. He nodded and asked me why. I told him about my father.

"Wait, The Great Charizard? He was your father? That's unbelievable! He was very famous way back when! He was said to have saved an entire city from a group of bad guys using something that we scientists cannot explain still, called Giga Evolution."

"Yeah. I can do similar. I am able to Mega Evolve without using a Mega Evolution stone. I received it in Kalos and I've been training my power since. I want to become stronger so that I can avenge my father."

"Do you think that you can help me with my research? If you can, that'd be great."

"Yeah, sure."

"If you achieve your Giga Evolution, or anything beyond that that is unheard of, call me on your Pokégear."

"Poké-what? What the heck is a Pokégear?"

"You've never heard of a Pokégear? You can make calls on it and other convenient things. Here, I'll give you this one." Oak handed me a blue Pokégear. It was a sideways flip phone, basically, but it had two touch screens, so that was neat. "It has a radio and a map installed on it, for your convenience. And of course, it tells time."

"Woah. If only my Pokétch were this cool. Well, thank you, Professor Oak!"

"No problem. If you ever need to call me, call this number..."

Professor Oak gave me his phone number

"Well, I should head back to Elm's lab."

"Oh, I almost forgot. Here's Elm's number as well."

After that, Oak left. I walked outside and called Elm to let him know that I had gotten the egg.

...beeeeep...

...beeeeep- "H-hello? Cops?"

"No, it's me, Professor Elm. Vinny. I have the egg you needed."

"Y-yeah. While that's great and all, I'm having some serious problems here... oh no... uh, come back to the lab quickly!"

Click! Beep...beep...

I was already running before he finished talking. Within two minutes, I had reached Cherrygrove City and the entrance to Route 29 when...

SMACK!

That douchebag from earlier slammed into me, knocking me back. He fell to the ground, the air knocked out of him.

"Ooh... hey! It's you! I overheard your conversation with that four eyed nerd. He's so stupid that I was able to break in and steal a Pokémon when he wasn't looking. A Pokémon that'll do good against your ass! Go, um..." He stopped to read the Pokémon's name on the ball. "To- uh, Toto-dile...? Yeah. Go Totodile! Kick his ass! Use something useful!" Totodile began swiping and scratching at me, doing almost nothing to me. _Jeez, I didn't even send out my Pokémon yet._ I thought.

"You done? Okay then. Go Pikachu!" Pikachu appeared out of a burst of light.

"Use Thunder."

Pikachu jumped into the air and sent a strong, acurate bolt of lightning down on Totodile, KO'ing it instantly.

"Now go return that Pokémon. NOW." I shouted.

"Hmph. Like I'm gonna listen to you. Just because you beat me once doesn't give you any authority to tell me what to do." As he was talking, I noticed his ID on the ground. I saw his name on the card which said "Silver".

"Silver." I said to the boy who was still talking.

"What? How'd you know...?"

"Your ID." I pointed to the card on the ground.

He picked up the card hastily. "Jerk," he muttered before walking away. I returned back to the lab. The police was at the scene of crime, investigating the situation.

"There you are, Vinny."

"I got the egg like you asked."

"Good, but that can wait," replied Elm. "Apparently, when my back was turned, a young boy about your age broke through that window there and stole a rare Pokémon."

"Oh, red hair and navy blue jacket? Yeah, I fought him on Route 29."

"You did?" asked the policeman. "Tell me, what was his name?"

"Silver."

"Alright, looks like I'm done with this investigation. Good day." The policeman left.

"Huh. So you actually met up with him, and you defeated him? Did you use your power?"

"No. I have a Pokémon team. I used my Pikachu to defeat Silver's Pokémon. It was easy. Oh, by the way..." I showed him the Pokémon egg I had obtained from Mr. Pokémon.

"This? This is a rather unusual egg... I've never seen anything like this before. I mean, yes, I've seen other eggs, but they were green and white. This one is blue and red. Tell you what. Since you're going on your journey, would you mind taking the egg along with you? To incubate it, I mean. I know it's a lot to ask of you, but it's crucial to my research."

"Yeah, sure. Whatever. I'll call you when the egg hatches. But now, I should be going. I'm gonna take on the Johto League."

"I wish you the best of luck, Vinny." And with that, I left.

I walked out to Route 29 and back to Route 30 where I continued on with my journey. On Route 30, I fought the two trainers that were blocking the route before. Well technically, I basically went and defeated every trainer on that route and moved on to Route 31 and then the first city with the first gym badge, Violet City.

The sun was setting low over Violet City and the street lights began to light up. I couldn't enter the gym because the leader was away, so I set off for Sprout Tower for more training. In Sprout Tower, I battled my way to the top of the tower and ran into Silver. He had just finished a battle with the "old hag" on the top of the tower. Then he used an Escape Rope and left the building. I proceeded to fight the elder who in return gave me TM70, Flash. He also gave me an Escape Rope which I used to get out of the building. After that, I went to go challenge the Gym. Damn, the gym was freakin' easy. The gym leader, Falkner admitted defeat and gave me the Violet City Zephyr Badge and TM51, Roost. I exited the gym and looked at the map on my Pokégear. I was supposed to travel south to Azalea Town where the next badge was. So that's exactly what I did.

I made my way down south along Route 32 doing my usual thing, training and such. The bright stars lit up the dark sky above along with the street lamps lined along the route. I traveled all the way down south to Union Cave and made my way through it to Route 33 and to Azalea Town. It was very early in the morning now, but still dark. I entered Azalea Town and noticed a man in black with a big "R" on his shirt bullying a regular man trying to reason with him. Suddenly, the dude in black shoved the other man back, who ran away in fear. _They must be this region's bad gang,_ I thought angrily. The guy in black was guarding a pathway to a well and wouldn't move at all. I was going to find out if Team Rocket had any affiliation with the gang who killed dad. But first, I went to challenge the gym, but if course it was blocked off by a Team Rocket member. What the hell were they doing in Azalea Town? I didn't know what to do, but after talking to a few people in town, I heard that they were there for Slowpoke tails. Despicable, I'd call it. I met up with an old guy named Kurt who made special Pokéballs. He ran off like crazy to the well in which I followed. When I got to the bottom of the well, Kurt was at the bottom, lying on the ground in pain. I went on to fight the gang of bad guys in the well who revealed themselves as Team Rocket. Soon, I defeated their commander and ridded them from the well completely. Afterward, Kurt brought me back to his house where he said that he would be glad to be able to make me Pokéballs from Apricorns. I rejected, but told him that I would take his gratitude instead. I left to go take on the gym and defeated the gym leader who, I couldn't tell if he was a boy or girl at first. But after the battle, he gave me Azalea Town's Hive Badge and TM89, U-turn. I started to exit the town, but I was stopped by Silver who was no match for me again. After the short battle, I exited to the forest and began my long journey up north.


	22. Chapter 22: The Rockets

I entered the forest west of Azalea Town called Ilex Forest. I met a boy there who was searching for his lost Pokémon, a Farfetch'd. He asked me to go search for it for him because he didn't want to go far into the woods. Fuckin' pussy. Soon I found his bird and in return he gave me a Charcoal. I burned down the tree that was blocking the path and continued on until I reached the exit to the forest. I fought trainers on Route 34, getting stronger along with my Pokémon. I kept heading north until I reached Goldenrod City.

Remember when I said that with every new place I went to, everything was always bigger? Yeah, Goldenrod City was the biggest yet. There was almost too much to do there. There was a casino, (ahem, underage gambling) an underground tunnel with even more trainers, a department store much like Veilstone City, a name rater, a flower shop, a radio tower, and the gym. There was also a bike shop, but it was rather inconspicuous and hidden from the public's eye. I was more focused on winning the badge from Goldenrod City's gym, however. So I made my way to the gym and fought the trainers there until I got to the gym leader, Whitney. I easily defeated her and obtained the Goldenrod City Plain Badge and TM45, Attract. I exited the gym and headed up north to Route 35, constantly training my Pokémon and myself. At the end of the Route 35, I entered a gate and went for a stroll in the National Park and participated in a catching game until the sun went down. I exited the park and continued forth on Route 36.

I came across a weird looking tree blocking the path. I tried burning it down, but oddly, it was only slightly charred when I finished attacking. Then suddenly, the tree fell over. I then realized that it was a Pokémon, but it had fainted from my attack. I caught it anyway and sent it to my PC. After that, I continued on to Route 37 and the next city.

Ecruteak City. A smaller city than Goldenrod, but still big enough to be a city. To the northwest was a burned tower, while to the northeast there was a tower bigger than any other I had ever seen. There were other buildings in the city, the usual Pokémon Center and Pokémart, a ramen stand, the gym, and a dance theater. I went to the gym first, obviously, and beat the gym leader, Morty (M-m-m-Morty!) and obtained the Ecruteak City Fog Badge and TM30, Shadow Ball. After that, I checked out the dance theater and defeated the kimono girls who were waiting to challenge me. I defeated them all and they gave me a Tidal Bell and told me to ring it in Whirl Islands.

After the theater, I decided to look inside the Burned Tower to the northeast, in which I encountered Silver, in which I kicked his ass again. At the base of the tower, three Pokémon were sitting there, but all ran away when they noticed me. One of them stayed back, checking me out, and sniffing me, in which I felt uncomfortable. Soon, it left like the rest of the dogs. _They must've been legendary Pokémon,_ I thought. I also went to check out the Bell Tower, ignoring the stupid assholes who tried to stop me. I just told Fearow to fly to the top, where I saw another legendary Pokémon which I later identified in my PC as Ho-oh. I exited Ecruteak City to the west onto Route 38. I traveled past a farm on Route 39 and entered Olivine City.

I couldn't enter the gym because it was closed, as the gym leader was out at the moment. Silver was there, and said that the gym leader was off at the lighthouse, taking care of a Pokémon. So I made my way up the lighthouse, fighting constantly and when I got to the top, I was shocked to find out that the gym leader was Jasmine, Volkner's girlfriend. She was taking care of a sick Ampharos and then asked me if I could travel to Cianwood CIty to get a bag of Secret Potion to cure "Amphy". I _did_ use up the bag that Cynthia gave to me, so I took the journey to Cianwood, across the ocean on Route 40. I fought trainers on Gyarados' back with Pikachu and soon made it to Cianwood City in a few hours' time.

Cianwood City was rather a rather small coastal city, but whatever. I entered the building to the south of the city and asked to get some Secret Potion. The guy there said it would take some time to make it, and that I should go do something in the meantime. So I went to the gym. The leader, Chuck, had a waterfall crashing down on his head, so I had to turn off the mechanism by making it to a higher level and pressing a button on a machine. I fought Chuck, who in return gave me the Cianwood City Storm Badge and TM01, Focus Punch.

In the time that the battle took, the medicine guy gave me a small bag of Secret Potion and I left for Olivine City, but got sidetracked and saw a bunch of islands called the Whirl Islands, and for a good reason too. There were tons of whirlpools around the islands, but I made it past anyway. After hours of backtracking and frustration, I finally made it to the heart of the islands and found a large room with the biggest waterfall I had ever seen. Remembering what the kimono girls told me, I rang the Tidal Bell and the waterfall rumbled. Then with a mighty roar and a crashing of the waterfall, the legendary Pokémon, Lugia, appeared out of the waterfall and waited to challenge me. I did so, and soon I caught it and sent it back to my PC.

Back in Olivine Lighthouse, I gave the Secret Potion to Jasmine, who fed it to Amphy. Amphy seemed much better, and Jasmine returned to the gym. I followed, and soon fought her and defeated her, in which she gave me the Olivine City Mineral Badge and TM23, Iron Tail. I then returned to Ecruteak City and exited to the east side, completely ignoring Mt. Mortar and continuing on to Route 42 and Mahogany Town. The gym leader wasn't there, _again,_ so I decided to look around for a bit. I entered the gate to Route 43 but I got stopped by some Team Rocket douchebags who wanted my money "in order to pass through the gate. I ended up throwing them out of there and burying their heads in the ground.

I made my way up to the Lake of Rage fighting trainers along the way. Rain was pouring down at the lake and after talking to a few people, I found the cause of the heavy rain to be a red Gyarados in the center of the lake. I surfed to the center of the lake and took down the shiny Gyarados. When I had done so, my Gyarados spit on the fainted Gyarados and surfed back to land. Standing there was a trainer with red spiky hair and a cape. He introduced himself as Lance and told me about Team Rocket's plans and other stupid shit I didn't care about. He told me to follow him back to Mahogany Town where he uncovered the entrance to Team Rocket's hideout in a gift shop.

A few hours later, I came out of the hideout with Lance, covered in blood stains (not mine). Lance flew off on his Dragonite, leaving me to face the gym. I stepped inside the ice-cold gym and faced every trainer and Pryce, who, after defeat gave me the Mahogany Town Glacier Badge and TM07, Hail. I stepped out of the gym and got a call from Elm telling me that the Goldenrod City Radio Tower was taken over by Team Rocket.

I flew over to Goldenrod and immediately noticed the Team Rocket Grunts everywhere. A few were blocking the path to the Radio Tower, so I took the Underground Path to get past the grunts. However, the Underground Path wasn't much better. There were still Grunts there, but they took over the place where the picture guys took pictures of people wearing Team Rocket uniforms for fun. That got me thinking, though. What if I disguised myself as a grunt and infiltrated the Radio Tower? Sort of like an infiltration of an infiltration. I walked over to the Grunts and told the Grunts that I was a new recruit. And wouldn't you know it, those idiots actually bought it! They handed me a uniform and told me to go to the Radio Tower.

I made it up to the Radio Tower, but I was stopped by Silver, who almost gave me away. He told me that he actually despised Team Rocket, but he never told me why. He left, leaving me to take on Team Rocket. I fought my way past every Grunt and met the phony Radio Director. He was actually a Team Rocket Executive, but I never caught his name because I threw him out the window to his death. I didn't bother getting the Basement Key, so I made a shortcut to the roof by breaking through the window in the studio. On the roof, I fought the head Executive, Ariana, and completely ridded the tower and Goldenrod City of Team Rocket.

After that was taken care of, I flew back to Mahogany Town and exited east to Route 44, but not before I got a free Rage Candy Bar. I seeked out every trainer and then entered Ice Path. After a few hours of frustration and busting my ass on ice, I made it to the final city of Johto, Blackthorn City. It was an old city, but had had just a touch of modern to it. I went to go challenge the gym immediately. It was a piece of cake, really, because Gyarados knew Dragon Pulse. I got to the gym leader, Clair and in defeat, she gave me... nothing. She said that I wasn't mentally strong enough to obtain the badge. She told me that I had to first complete some dumb challenge in the Dragon's Den. So a few minutes later, I met up with Clair in a little hut in the den. Some old guy just had me answer some questions about the bonds of Pokémon, and then Clair gave me the Blackthorn City Rising Badge. She didn't give me the Technical Machine because I already taught it to Gyarados, but she gave me Gyaradosite (a Mega Evolution stone) instead. I traveled south along Route 45 and found myself back on Route 29 and soon I was back in Newbark Town. I showed my badges to Elm and my training record. Elm took a look at the record and thanked me dearly for it and told me to go east to Route 26 and to the Pokémon League. I surfed along the lake, watching the sunrise as I took my first step into Kanto.

xxxx

Do you know that feeling of satisfaction when you just finish a test in math class, or when you just finish washing all the dishes in the sink? That is the exact feeling I felt when I first stepped onto land. A man stood there and he said, "Do you know what you've just done? You just took your first step into Kanto! Check your map on your Pokégear!" I did, and he was absolutely right. I continued, jumping another upward ledge, because fuck physics. I fought all trainers on Route 26 and 27, which was no challenge at all. My feeling of happiness faded slightly. I traveled north, going through Pokémon battles like it was nothing. And at last, I reached the gate to Victory Road.

Victory Road was basically a big maze in a cave. It took a few hours, but I got to the exit where I was confronted by Silver. His team had gotten stronger, much stronger, but not strong enough. After the battle, I continued north to the Johto/Kanto Pokémon League. I entered the building, healed up and stocked up on items and entered into the first room where I fought the first of the Elite Four, Will who used Psychic Types. He started out with a Xatu and then another Xatu, both taken down by Pikachu. Then he sent out Exeggutor, obliterated by my Flare Blast. Next was Jynx, wiped out by my Flame Ball, and then Slowbro, electrocuted by Pikachu. I moved on to the next room.

Next up was Koga who used Poison Types. First was Ariados, defeated by Fearow. Next was Forretress, burned by my Flame Crosschop. Then there was Muk, split apart by Tyranitar's Earthquake, and then Venomoth, incinerated by my Flame Ball. Last was Crobat, who was shocked out of the air by Pikachu. I moved on to the next room.

Third in line was Bruno who used Fighting Types. He was a piece of cake, really. I used Fearow to take out his Hitmontop, then went his Hitmonlee, his Hitmonchan didn't last a few seconds, and then his Machamp turned out to be a Ma-chump. His Onix, Gyarados doused with Hydro Pump. I entered the next room.

The last of the Elite Four was a woman named Karen, who used Dark Types. First was Umbreon, pummeled by Breloom. Next was Murkrow, shocked by Pikachu. Then Vileplume, burned to a crisp by me, and then Gengar, shaken, not stirred, by Tyranitar. Last was Houndoom, drowned out by Gyarados. I headed into the room with the champion.

Well, I was shocked to find out that the champion was Lance, the spiky haired trainer from Mahogany Town, the one who helped me infiltrate Team Rocket's hideout. I walked up to him and started our battle. First to go was Gyarados, who couldn't stand Pikachu's voltage. Next was a Dragonite, a Dragonite, and another Dragonite, all frozen solid by Gyarados' Ice Fang. Next was Aerodactyl, doused by Gyarados' Surf. Last to go was Charizard, also meeting the same fate as Aerodactyl. Lance admitted defeat, and we walked up to the Johto Hall of Fame. I registered into the Hall of Fame and became the champion of Johto. But my journey wasn't over.

After registering my name, I walked back to the entrance of the Pokémon League building and walked back to the exit of Victory Road. I walked past the guards and walked left out to Route 22 and walked to Viridian City. The gym leader wasn't there, so I walked south onto Route 1. There were some trainers there, but I easily defeated them. I kept going south until I reached Pallet Town. Prof. Oak's lab was there, along with a few other houses. I entered the lab and told Oak of my great achievement. He seemed pleased to hear it and told me to try to collect the badges in Kanto as well and come back to him. I set out for Pewter City first. I traveled up north to Viridian Forest and winded through the natural maze. While doing so, I pondered my now month and a half journey in Johto.

It was long.

It was rather easy.

I had experienced new things along the way as well. I snapped back to reality once I got close to the exit. I exited the forest and continued onto Pewter City.


	23. Chapter 23: The Badges

**Author's note: In this chapter, there's a made up town that my friend asked me to put in here that he created. So if you see it and say, "That's not a town in Pokémon!" You're right, but now you know why it's there.**

 **You're welcome Joseph.**

* * *

I entered Pewter City and visited the gym. In the gym, I battled the few trainers there and went to face Brock. He was very easy. First was Ryhorn, then Graveler and then Onix, all taken down by Gyarados' mighty Hydro Pump. Kabutops and Omastar, being Water and rock types were no match for Breloom's Seed Bomb and Thunder Punch. Brock admitted defeat and gave me the Pewter City Boulder Badge and TM80, Rock Slide.

I exited the gym and ventured out onto Route 3 and onto Mt. Moon. There, I met up with Silver, who seened much less of an asshole. We had a short battle and after the battle, he actually stuck out his hand for me to shake. Maybe he finally accepted or respected me? I didn't know, but I shook his hand anyway. Ater that, we parted ways.

I exited Mt. Moon onto Route 4 and headed east to Cerulean City. In Cerulean Gym the gym leader wasn't there, but the gym wasn't closed, oddly. I walked into the gym and saw a Team Rocket Grunt looking into the water.

"Hey! What're you up to? I thought I disbanded Team Rocket!"

"Oh? Trainer go 'sneak up' on me? I not hatve anyting to do wit Team Rocket! I not drop anyting in water just now! Sayonara!" He tried to exit but I blocked the exit with my flaming arms.

"Was dis? Fiya powa?! No! Pwee don kiw me!"

"I might not kill you, but unless you don't wanna get hurt, tell me what you stole."

So the weird dude told me that he stole a machine part from the Power Plant on Route 10. I exited the gym, but not before getting the machine part and drowning the idiot in the pool of water. I traveled out to Route 9 but I didn't see a power plant. On Route 6, there was a river heading south past Rock Tunnel. Gyarados surfed on the river and I found the Power Plant. Inside the plant, I returned the stolen machine piece and the big generator started moving. After that was taken care of, I flew back to Cerulean. Strangely enough, the gym leader still wasn't there, so I went out to Route 24 to search.

Route 24 was basically a bridge, some tall grass to the left of the bridge, and some pointless ledges to the north. However, Route 25 was where it was at. Meaning, the trainers were actually on Route 25, rather than 24, but anyway! I had to go through a path in the trees, battling a group of trainers who said they would give me a gift if I could defeat all of them at once. So I did. And they gave me a gold nugget. I was standing there thinking, _what the hell were they doing with a gold nugget? Where did they steal it from?_

I continued onward to the cape, where I saw a couple looking out into the water. An ace trainer and a redhead girl who looked like she was ready for a swim practice. _Wait... swim practice... water... pool... gasp! That girl is the gym leader! I've found her!_ I walked over to the girl and tapped her on the shoulder. She looked startled and then rather pissed. She said that I interrupted her during a date and I told her my reason. She stopped for a second and then said to come to the gym later, and then left. I didn't know what to do in the meantime, so I wandered around for a bit.

There was a route heading out north, so I decided to go check it out. It wasn't on the map, so I was curious. The route was called Route 47 and was an open field of grass. There were a few trainers on the route, but not much else to see. The sunset was beautiful, though. I continued north to a small town called Pint Town (read the author's note if you already haven't). It was as small as Pallet Town, but it had more houses. A house stood out from the rest, as it had a yellow roof. I read the mailbox which said, _The Lopezes_. I looked around, but I didn't see a Pokémon Center or Pokémart. There were many other houses, a taco resaurant, a battle stadium, some tall grass, and even another route heading out west. I followed meadowy Route 48 to an entrance to a cave called Miner's Cave.

I had no idea that I was about to make one of the biggest mistakes of my life. However, it would also be one of the biggest blessings, not just a curse.

Miner's Cave was called that name for a reason; every wall and even the ceiling was abundant with Leaf Stones and other minerals. As I traveled deeper into the cave, the pathway sloped down more and more, until I found myself descending a set of stairs into another cave sytem. A sign read, Cerulean Cave. Beware of the monstrously strong Pokémon that lies deep within this cave. I stood there for a second, thinking. _A monstrously strong Pokémon? A challenge? This could just as well be what I'm looking for!_

I ventured into the huge maze of a cave which took a good two hours, but I finally found what I was looking for: the monstrously strong Pokémon. Once in its line of sight, it used Swift, sending homing star shaped rays at me. It tried to use Psychic as a follow-up, but I had been charging Flame Ball and released it before Psychic could hit me. And then, the worst thing happened. Out of rage, it used another Psychic, and immediately followed it up with a Hyper Beam. I received a massive headache but luckily, I dodged the surging beam of energy in time...

...or so I thought.

I tried to charge up another attack, but I couldn't move my left arm. I heard a faint dripping sound and then I felt excruciating pain coming from my left arm. But to my horror, when I looked over at my arm, I saw that there was no arm at all. I screamed so loud that the monster had to cover its ears and attack at the same time. I didn't let it attack, though. I kicked it back before it could use Psychic while charging up Flame Ball in my right hand. After charging, I released a Mega Flame Ball followed by a Flame Kick, knocking the monster unconscious. I threw an Ultra Ball and waited...

The ball wiggled once.

Click!

I caught the monster, but the fight was over, so I had to worry about my detatched limb, which probably disintegrated after the monster used Hyper Beam. All I had left was a blood-dripping arm socket and not much else. In the meantime, I sprayed it with a Full Heal, which stung like FUCKING HELL. I exited the cave and returned back to Cerulean to see if I could take on the gym yet. It seemed like the gym was open, so I took on the gym with Pikachu which was easy as shit. I got to Misty who, just like everyone else, was concerned about my nonexistent arm. I told her not to be concerned, and we started our battle. Defeated first was Golduck and then Lapras and Starmie. Quagsire was defeated by Breloom and that was it. I won the Cerulean City Cascade Badge and TM03, Water Pulse. After I exited the gym, I headed toward the Pokémon Center and had Nurse Joy take a look at my socket. She gasped and hissed a lot and told me that I would have to spend the night to even have the slightest chance of getting my arm back. I stayed in a capsule they would normally use for healing larger Pokémon and entered a dreamless sleep.

xxxx

 _Where am I? What happened..._ I slowly opened my eyes and saw a figure standing over me. It felt so much like a dream, but at the same time, I knew that I was awake. My left arm hurt a little, but I didn't know why. I opened my eyes fully and saw Nurse Joy standing over me.

"Vincent, right? So, I have some good news and of course, bad news as well. The good news is that your arm was able to regenerate thanks to this capsule, but the bad news... well, it's hard for me to say this, but the skin wasn't able to regrow."

"Wha..." As Nurse Joy stood over me, blocking out the blinding light on the ceiling, I collected my thoughts and memory and remembered: I was fighting a monstrously strong Pokémon in Cerulean Cave and it disintegrated my arm with Hyper Beam. Then I took on the gym and spent the night at the Pokémon Center. I looked over at my arm and saw that Nurse Joy was right; my arm was able to regrow into a solid steel arm. I moved my digits which seemed to work just fine. It seemed like my nerves grew back in, too. I wasn't too sure about my veins, but at least I had an arm back. _Thank God for advanced technology,_ I thought.

I exited the Pokémon Center and took in the fresh morning air. I was headed to where the next badge was, in Vermillion City. I traveled south along Route 5 and then passed through the gate, through the busy streets of Saffron City, and through the south gate to Route 6, fighting trainers like it was nothing, because it wasn't. I entered Vermillion City and headed straight toward the gym. A tree was blocking the way to the gym, so I burned it and entered the gym. Inside the gym was a bunch of trash cans and a few trainers. I fought the trainers and then walked up to the electric field blocking the way to the gym leader. Using Titanium Fist, I smashed the mechanism emitting the plasma energy and fought the gym leader, Lt. Surge. Using Tyranitar, he plowed through two Electrodes, a Raichu, Electabuzz, and finally a Magneton. Admitting defeat, Lt. Surge gave me the Vermillion City Thunder Badge and TM34, Shock Wave. I exited the gym and headed for the next city.

I backtracked to Saffron City and traveled west to where the next badge was. I traveled through Route 7 and soon made it to Celadon City. I burned the tree to the south of the city and entered the gym. With my fire, the whole gym was easy as shit. I fought the leader, Erika, burning Jumpluff, Tangela, Victreebel, and Bellosom to a crisp all in 1 minute. Erika, surprised at my power gave me the Celadon City Rainbow Badge and TM19, Grass Knot. I exited the gym and the city to the west where I completely ignored the guard telling me I needed a bike and walked out onto Route 16 and 17, Cycling Road. I fought every trainer like normal and ran down the sloping road to the next city.

I walked through Fuschia City and exited out to Route 15 and from Route 15 all the way up to Lavender Town, I battled every single trainer on the east, but in a way, I felt no sense of accomplishment. I even battled trainers on Routes 7 and 11 and even catching a Snorlax along the way, and then I made my way back to Fuschia City.

I entered Fuschia City and headed straight for the gym. Inside the gym was a maze of mirrors endlessly confusing me. Evemtually, I got fed up and just broke the mirrors that were annoying me. I made it to the gym leader, Janine who I used Tyranitar and Pikachu against. Tyranitar took down two Ariados, a Weezing, and a Venomoth with his over-powered Earthquake and Pikachu shocked Crobat out of the sky with his Thunder. After the battle, Janine gave me the Fuschia City Soul Badge and TM84, Poison Jab.

I exited the gym and stared at the setting sun over the horizon. _What the hell am I gonna do after all this?_ I thought deeply while walking back to Saffron. It's _just not fun or exciting anymore. I used to feel excited when I battled, but that was when I wasn't this strong. I feel strong, I one-shot everything, battles take no more than a minute... but yet, I feel empty inside... am I too strong or is it the other people I fight?_ I suddenly felt how Volkner had felt two years ago. I was depressed,not bevause I didn't have anyone to fight, but I just didn't have that spark anymore. I felt weak. Even though I was strong as hell, I felt weak. I could train 24/7, but I wouldn't get stronger. I felt like it was the trainers that I fought. Sure I gained experience from the battles, but I wouldn't reach my full potential.

I didn't know what to do, but I walked into Saffron Gym anyway. I teleported my way through Saffron Gym, half-heartedly fighting every trainer in the gym and then proceeding to fight the gym leader, Sabrina. I had Tyranitar use Dark Pulse on Espeon and Mewtwo use Shadow Ball on Mr. Mime and Alakazam. Sabrina, admitting defeat gave me the Saffron City Marsh Badge and TM48, Skill Swap. I looked at where I was supposed to go next on my Pokegear, which said to go to Cinnibar Island. I flew to Pallet Town and began my journey south. I surfed on Gyarados and fought all the trainers with Pikachu. I made it to a small island that was Cinnibar Island, but I only saw a Pokemon Center there. A trainer was standing on the island looking out into the ocean and told me that the gym leader was on Seafoam Islands. I set off for Seafoam Islands which took a few hours.

Seafoam Islands came into view over the horizon and I entered the cave and climbed up the ladder to the gym. The gym was basically a giant maze, but I made it through anyway, fighting all the trainers in the gym and eventually reaching the leader, Blaine. Using Gyarados, I defeated Blaine's Macargo, Magmar, and Rapidash with Gyarados' mighty Hydro Pump. After the fight, Blaine gave me the Cinnabar Island Volcano Badge and TM50, Overheat. I exited Seafoam Islands.

Back on Cinnabar Island, or what was left of it, I was about to surf north back to Pallet Town when the trainer from earlier stopped me and asked if I had gotten the Cinnabar Volcano Badge. I told him yes and he introduced himself as Blue, the Viridian City Gym Leader and former Kanto League Champion. I told him that I wanted to challenge him, and then he flew off on his Pokémon back to Viridian City. I followed, flying on Fearow, hoping that this battle would be challenging. But I should've known better than to get my hopes up too much.

I landed in Viridian City on Fearow and headed toward the gym which was, finally, open at last. In the gym were countless floor panels that made you move in a certain direction and drove you fuckin' insane. It took many hours, but I finally made it to Blue, who was smirking at the fact that it took me 4 hours just to get to him. At that moment, I decided that I was going to defeat him entirely by myself just to wipe that stupid grin off his face.

He started with Exeggcutor, which I easily defeated with Flame Uppercut. Obviously, he was surprised by this, but he kept sending out his Pokémon nevertheless. Next was Rhydon taken down in _two_ hits, then Gyarados, punched in the face by Titanium Fist. Then Arcanine, tasting the pain of his own medicine with Mega Flame Ball, then Machamp, bested by my Flame Crosschop, and finally Pidgeot, knocked out of the air by my Flame Kick. Blue was stunned by two things: one my fire power, obviously, and that I was able to defeat him in under two minutes. I stood there, panting slightly, feeling better that I had a battle that was even slightly challenging. Blue's smirk was gone from existence. He was no longer smiling. He stood there for what seemed a really long time and then... he smiled. He laughed and admitted defeat and gave me the Viridian City Earth Badge along with TM92, Trick Room.

I exited the gym and returned to Pallet Town where I showed Oak all my badges from the Kanto Region. He congratulated me, but I told him of my depression and my reason. He thought for a moment once I told him and then he said to me that he could arrange plans for me to visit Mt. Silver, the tallest mountain in the Pokémon Regions. But before I left, he told me to go visit the house to the northeast of the town and talk to the lady there. I did so, and the mother told me of her son who hadn't come down from Mt. Silver for a long time. I wondered why her son was there in the first place and who he was. I set off for Mt. Silver to search for him, not sure of what I was doing.


	24. Chapter 24: The Trainer

I had no idea what I was going to get myself into. I remember at the start of my journey in Johto, I saw the colossal mountain towering over the trees, but I never knew how dangerous it would be.

First off, the path to the mountain itself was rugged, the cave was dark, like really dark, so I had to keep a Flame Ball burning as a source of light. The maze inside the cave was confusing as fuck, and at one point, the path exited to the mountainside, where it was cold as shit, even with a jacket on. Snow covered the ground much like Mt. Coronet, but even Mt. Coronet wasn't as tall as Mt. Silver. The hike up the mountain must've taken at least an hour, and even though I searched every room in the cave, all I found were some items and even Moltres, a legendary fire bird Pokémon which I was able to catch easily, but I saw no sign of a person anywhere. I hiked up the cold, snowy mountain for a long time, for what seemed many years. I stopped to take a rest, and I looked around me. The clouds seemed to be just above me and when I looked at the regions of Johto and Kanto below, I could not at first leave the beautiful sight of the two regions and the amazing lights. Once I had a moment to catch my breath, I continued to climb a wall and continued into Mt. Silver Cave. In this last room, I climbed the biggest rock wall I had ever in my life. Once I got to the top, I stopped to catch my breath once more and exited out onto the summit.

If I couldn't find the boy before, then I had wasted my time looking because standing out in the hailstorm on the summit was him.

The boy I had been searching for.

"Hey!" I shouted over the howling winds. "Hey!"

The boy looked over his shoulder.

"..."

"Are you Red? Your mother said that she misses you and she wants you to return home."

"..."

Red pulled out a Pokeball.

"..."

"So you want a battle, huh? Is that the only way you'll return home?"

"..."

Red sent out his first Pokemon, a Pikachu. I sent out Tyranitar. Pikachu used Quick Attack at light speed, sending Tyranitar flying far back, surprisingly.

"...!" I was stunned. Pikachu used yet another Quick Attack and then an Iron Tail, knocking out Tyranitar. I didn't even give Tyranitar a command yet! I didn't see Pikachu's movements because it was too fast.

"..."

Red's face was serious. He didn't smirk, he didn't smile, he didn't frown, he didn't speak at all.

As far as I was concerned, I had no more Pokemon strong against Electric Types. Gyarados would faint instantly if hit by one of Pikachu's electric attacks, my Pikachu wouldn't do much damage, Breloom probably wouldn't be the best choice due to the hailstorm, Fearow would end up like Gyarados, so that left me with myself and Mewtwo. Mewtwo was strong, so he could probably do it.

I sent out Mewtwo and instantly commanded him to use Psychic. Mewtwo used Psychic and gave Pikachu a massive headache and slammed it around, repeatedly slamming Pikachu into the snow covered ground. Pikachu used Thunderbolt and hit Mewtwo with a bolt of electricity while Mewtwo used Psychic. I commanded Mewtwo to use Swift and he shot out star shaped rays that homed in on Pikachu when it tried to dodge and I commanded Mewtwo to use Hyper Beam before Pikachu could react. Mewtwo was one step ahead of me, though, and hit Pikachu with a large beam of energy, the same kind that disinegrated my arm. Pikachu fainted and Red withdrew and sent out Blastoise next. I used Pikachu for this one. Pikachu was lightning quick on his feet, which made it easier for him to dodge Blastoise's attacks. I commanded Pikachu to dodge Blastoise's Hydro Cannon and counter it with Thunder. Pikachu shot up into the air and unleashed a large bolt of lightning which struck down hard on Blastoise, causing it to faint. Red sent out Lapras next, which instantly used Brine on Pikachu. Pikachu slumped on the ground but then countered it with Thunderbolt. Lapras took heavy damage from the attack but then used Blizzard and froze Pikachu in place.

"Hey Red. Watch this." I ignited my arms, ready to use Flame Cross Chop.

"...!" Red obviously wasn't expecting that. I used Flame Cross Chop on the ice that was encasing Pikachu and shattered it completely, being careful not to harm Pikachu. One Pikachu was free from the ice, I commanded him to use Thunderbolt again, which resulted in Lapras returning to its ball.

Red sent out Snorlax, and instantly, it used Rest and fell asleep. Lazy fuck. I took this as an opportunity to lash out on Snorlax. I used Titanium Fist twice in a row, then I charged up Flame Ball to Mega Flame Ball, then I Mega Evolved and used Flare Burst and then Flame Kick, Flame Cross Chop, and then sent Snorlax flying with Flame Uppercut. Red returned Snorlax to its ball and sent out Charizard. I sent out Gyarados and commanded him to use Hydro Pump, but Charizard used Dragon Pulse before I could get a word out. Gyarados took some heavy damage from the attack, and then used Hydro Pump. Charizard obviously fainted from the attack, and returned. Last, Red sent out Venusaur, which was perfect for me. Red probably realized that I could take Venusaur out in one hit, in which Venusaur hit me with Sludge Bomb over and over. I tried to use Flare Burst to end it, but Venusaur moved out of the way and used Frenzy Plant on me, or at least tried to. I ran up to Venusaur and used Flame Kick and ended it with Flare Burst. Red stood there emotionless. He gave me prize money, but I refused.

"Listen. I don't know if you can talk or not, but I just want you to know, you put up a pretty good fight. Certainly better than all the weak-ass trainers I faced throughout my journey. You lit a spark in me again. Thank you."

"..." He looked like he didn't want to speak, but for the first time, I saw him smile. He nodded and then...

"Thank you, too."

"You can speak! Were you just pulling my leg or something?"

"No, I just-" GRRROOOOWWL. Red's stomach growled ferociously.

...

Upon hearing that, we both exploded into peals of laughter.

"Hahahahaha! I guess standing up on this mountain doesn't help your hunger, now does it?" I laughed.

"Yeah. I've really been living off of melted snow and snacks, you know. It's been a while since I actually ate at a restaurant. A guy can get hungry after standing on a mountain for 3 years."

"I actually know a place we can go if you're hungry. You like ramen noodles?"

"Oh, yeah. Definitely."

"Come on. We can fly off this god forsaken mountain on my Fearow. We can talk at the ramen place."

I sent out Fearow and told him the destination. He nodded and then we set off.


	25. Chapter 25: Ramen Noodles

Remember the ramen stand I mentioned in Ecruteak City during my Johto adventure? I decided to take Red there. Red jumped on Fearow with me, and we left the God forsaken mountain behind. Once Fearow landed in Ecruteak, we headed towards the stand. On the way there, Red looked around at the city.

"It's been so long, I forgot what a city looks like. This is all coming back to me now. I did travel to Johto, but that was a while ago."

"Well then, welcome back to civilization." We sat down at the ramen stand a few seats away from some other guy who looked like he had just gotten his bowl. He looked over at us, but something was familiar about him. Blue hair?

"You look familiar. Have I seen you before? No, I couldn't have," he said.

"What's your name?" I asked as Red and I each ordered.

"Cyrus."

"Cyrus? Oh, hey! It's you! Remember me? Distortion World?"

"Oh yeah! You're that kid! What was it?"

"It was Vinny, remember? Uh, how are you these days? I hope you're not doing evil work anymore."

"Oh, no! I've been done with that for a long time. It's been a while, huh? After you spared my life, I thought about my future and my actions. I realized that my actions would affect my future. So, I disbanded Team Galactic, and now I'm a businessman for Silph Co. It's a much better job that before, and they pay a lot more. It was tough getting in because I had to go through a bunch of legal stuff, you know, because I was the leader of Team Galactic. Apparently, they had an issue in the past with Team Rocket, so they had to beef up their security."

"Wow. Well, I'm glad to see that you're alright these days."

"Thank you. For everything, I mean. For sparing my life, changing my ways, everything. I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for you. Oh, I'm uh, running a bit late. I need to be in Olivine for business things. Uh, take care now! Bye!"

"Bye." I turned back to Red. While we waited to be served, we talked for a bit about each other's history.

"Wow. So, you're sorta like me, in that you went up to the mountain in search of a greater challenge. If you went up there because you were depressed, well, no, not depressed, but bored with Kanto and Johto, then why didn't you just travel to another region like I did?"

"Well, it's not really that simple for me. For starters, I wasn't even aware of any other regions besides what I'm familiar with, that being Kanto and Johto of course, and also Hoenn and Kalos. But even though I was aware of that, I was worried about pushing my Pokémon too hard. But now I see that it's done often, thanks to you. Oh, arigato gozimasu." The man who had made the ramen passed Red his bowl of ramen and then me, in which I also thanked him. I couldn't remember the last time I had a bowl of ramen that good. In all of the regions I had been to, I had to admit, nothing tasted better than hole-in-the-wall-restaurant food. As we ate, we resumed our conversation.

"So wait, you're the one who disbanded Team Rocket all those years ago?" Red only nodded, as his mouth was currently full of food. He swallowed, took a drink, and responded.

"Yeah, they were a bunch of douchebags anyway. I can't believe they had the nerve to form together again. I would've stopped them, but ya know, I had a pretty good streak going on Mt. Silver..."

"Haha. Yeah, don't worry about it. They'll think twice before rejoining again. Those idiots. What the hell was their goal anyway? I mean after they rejoined. Ah, whatever. They're gone, hopefully for good, so who cares? Maybe they'll find some good in their hearts and move on to do better things. Oh, dinner's on me, by the way."

Red and I finished our bowls and thanked the ramen guy for the meal. I flew Red back to Pallet Town on Fearow and said goodbye. As I flew away on Fearow, I caught a glimpse of Red hugging his mother for a long time, and his mother crying into his shoulder. I flew to Viridian City on Fearow and let him rest for a bit at the Pokémon Center along with the rest of my team. Once I was done, I got back on Fearow and told him to fly north back to Sinnoh. It was nighttime, but Fearow could still see in the darkness. As we flew over the lands below, I reflected on my journey, my entire journey, from Sinnoh to Kanto, and thought about how long it had taken. When I started out, I was 14 years old, and when I defeated Red, I was 17 years old. It had been about 3 years since I first set off to avenge my father, keeping my quest in mind as an incentive the whole time, but had never been able to find the evil group of bad guys who killed dad.

I landed in Twinleaf Town. Everything looked same as usual, smelled the same, felt the same, but I felt different, like I was the odd one out of a crowd. But what crowd? It felt kind of weird. I was happy to be back, but at the same time, I felt empty. I entered my house. I was greeted by a warm hug by my mom, and I felt safe, but empty and depressed. I guess I didn't do such a good job of hiding my sadness, because Mom asked me what was wrong. I simply said that I would tell her another time and kissed her goodnight. I went upstairs and got ready to go to sleep. While lying in my bed, I felt the worst kind of sadness, like if you died and were never reincarnated. You're taken away from your home, only to never return. After a torrent of thoughts and indecision, I finally decided that I would learn to cope with this sadness and go on living my life normally, accepting the fact that I wasted my time and I would go on living with the fact that I never avenged my father. Through all the bloody murders, all of the bad guys I killed, all of the bad organizations I disbanded, I was never going to avenge my father...

… but of course, I was wrong.


	26. Chapter 26: The Spirit

Weeks and weeks went by. I stayed at home with Mom all the while, but I felt sadder and sadder as the weeks went on. Rain fell, winds blew, the sun shined. Every day I got up, had some breakfast, and maybe exercised with my Pokémon. My Pokémon were all I had left. Maybe a few plaques and a couple of badges and some memories long gone, but nothing more. Mom usually cleaned around the house and went to go work at her job (I forgot to mention that she works at the Jubilife TV) which left me hanging around in Twinleaf Town. I saw Barry often, and we went to the lake in the afternoon just to chat. Around the area, like Sandgem Town, a new girl named Dawn moved in, and she was a new trainer. I got to know her, showed her how to catch Pokemon, how to fight, all the basics. Barry met her when we all met at the lake one day, and we sort of formed a group. A group of friends. A small group, but still a group. When it was just me and Barry, we were a group. With Dawn, our group got bigger.

I was still feeling a bit depressed, but I soon accepted the fact that I would never avenge my father. It always stuck with me, but I accepted my life as it was and always would be. After all, with my group of friends, I wouldn't be so lonely. I accepted my group of friends and that I would go on living a normal life. Until one night...

"Oh, you're going to bed early?" asked Mom.

"Yeah, I'm rather tired."

"Okay then. I guess everyone needs their rest-yaaaaaaaaaawwwwn... I guess I need my rest as well. Good night, Vincent."

"Goodnight, mom." I walked upstairs and did my usual routine. I climbed into bed and lay in bed, staring at the ceiling and waiting to drift off.

I don't remember what woke me. I was having a rather perculiar dream about a Charizard by the name of Jerry. He said something like, "I am your father." like Darth Vader or something. He said that he was a spirit and had been watching over me. He told me to go to the lake when I woke up and that he would wait for me there. Then he disappeared. As if on cue, I instantly woke up. I sat upright in my bed and tried to remember the dream I just had. When I tried to remember it, it started to slip away, but then all of a sudden, it hit me like a heavy freight train. I was to go to the lake and meet my father there. I sat there in my room, thinking. How could I meet my father, the Great Charizard, if he was dead and gone? Was he maybe a spirit? I ruled that option out and looked for other possibilities and realized that I was wasting my time. I plopped back down in bed.

...

Something wasn't quite right though. How could I have a dream about my father if I fell asleep not thinking about him? And why would he tell me in the dream to go to the lake to meet him there? He was dead! It was impossible! Or was it? I couldn't decide what it meant and ultimately just decided to go back to sleep. I checked the clock. It said 1:12 a.m. Why would I wake up to such a weird dream in the middle of the night? I just turned over and went back to sleep.

...

...or at least, tried to go back to sleep.

...

"God dammit."

Eventually, I couldn't take it anymore, so I just got dressed, tiptoed as quietly as I could downstairs, and exited the house. Twinleaf Town was silent. Not quiet, absolutely silent. Not a sound could be heard. It was rather eerie and gave me the chills even though whatever snuck up on me would die in two seconds. If a ghost tried to sneak up on me, I would instantly evapor- ah, that's besides the point. Let's just say that no matter how strong a person is, they always have fear in them. I mean, it was 1:12 in the morning, no one else was around, it was quiet as hell, and also very dark, so how could anyone not be scared if they were by themself? I called out Pikachu to keep me company and we walked down to Lake Verity.

Lake Verity was as silent as Route 201 was, so I saw no point in traveling there. However, I was curious to see if anything would appear. I walked to my father's grave and waited for a bit. I looked up and saw many stars. If stars represented those who had died, I bet my father was up there somewhere.

"SNORK! What the hell-" I had dozed off while waiting in front of my father's grave, but somehow, a ball of fire appeared in front of the grave.

It wasn't an ordinary ball of flame. It was blue fire.

I walked over to the grave. Pikachu woke up as well and jumped onto my shoulder. I slowly approached the fire and then the most impossible thing happened.

"Touch the ball of flame," said the fire. I withdrew Pikachu first and then reached out and tentatively touched the fire. It was nice and warm. When nothing happened, I put my hands around the fire. It felt rather odd, holding the fire. It didn't burn me. It just felt... different. Then all of a sudden, then ball exploded into a bonfire and cloaked the area in blue flames. I opened my eyes to see what was happening, but I couldn't see much. The fire storm kept raging until it finally cleared away into a brilliant swirl. I opened my eyes and I saw...

...him. The Charizard from my dream.

My father.

I walked up to him. He was sorta meditating. This was the first time I could actually see what my dad looked like!

"Dad?"

"Hm? Oh, it's you! My son, Vincent, all grown up! How are you? How old are you? What happened to your arm?"

"Dad, that can wait until later. I would like to ask some questions first. First of all, how the heck did you get here?"

"Yes, I had a feeling you'd ask that." He looked very serious, like I was. "I traveled here from the spirit world. As of now, I am a spirit. I was able to communicate with you in the dream you had telepathically."

"Wait, you're psychic? What am I thinking about?"

"You're depressed because you want to get stronger, but no one in all of the Pokémon Regions can make you stronger. I know how that feels."

"How?"

"When I first started training in the Pokémon Regions, I seeked out every trainer and challenged them all. But I soon realized that I wouldn't find challenge here. So I made something happen. I went in search of new lands to find challenge. And I did, eventually. I found a town with people like us living there, except they had something that we don't utilize: Magic Power. So I found a place in that town where those magic users gather and train to become strong. It was called a guild and I learned that there were many other guilds in that land. Some were evil, some were good. I learned new kinds of magic in the guild, hence my psychic powers."

"So your point is what?"

"My point is, if you want something bad enough, you'll find a way to make it happen. I can guarantee that."

"I have a few questions, though. How did you die? Who killed you?"

"I was basically tortured to death. I was killed by a group of bad guys that I had been investigating. I tried to get rid of all evil from the world, and during my mission, I stumbled across a gang of bad guys from the Pokémon Regions. They were from a region far away from here called Alola. Their name was Team Skull. But they weren't like any of the other teams, like Rocket, or Aqua or Magma, they utilized magic power too. Even the weakest of them were pretty damn strong. I never knew how they were able to become so strong, but I heard they were once harmless. That is until I found out the secret behind their immense power. Around this time, I met your mother. She was living in Kanto at the time and we got married. Then you were born, and I had to keep on fighting for the Charizard Legion. One day, I heard that most of the legion had been wiped out by Team Skull. Frustrated, I tracked them down and went after them. Their whereabouts was around Kanto and I basically declared war against Team Skull. I went after the executives of Team Skull, and that's how it all ended. They tracked down the location of your mother and you, and they chased us. I was brutally tortured and killed. I told your mother to escape to the north, to Sinnoh, which is here. I had set a spell around Twinleaf Town beforehand, just in case something like that ever happened. I told your mother to stay in Twinleaf Town and not leave until Team Skull's wrath subsided."

"Wow. That's a lot. But..." I suddenly got very serious. "Mom let me become a trainer a few years ago, and she told me the truth of how you died. All the previous years, she told me that died in a car crash. A white lie, obviously. I always knew that something was suspicious. But when she told me, I swore that I would train my hardest and become the strongest ever to avenge you. But then I went through what you went through, and now here I am and I don't know what to do."

Dad thought for a moment. He looked as if he'd forgotten something. He then turned to me.

"You may become strong enough, stronger than me possibly, if you work at it. I believe that you can surpass me and with the strength you have, you can possibly defeat Team Skull. Their massacre ended long ago, but they are still searching for Charizards from the Charizard Legion. I never found out who the leader of them all was, but if you train hard enough, then you could track them down and defeat them."

"Yeah. I guess so-"

"No! Don't guess! Know that you will do it!"

"But dad, what will happen to your spirit when I'm finished talking to you? Are you going to go back to the spirit world? I don't want you to go back. Though I've never known you, I miss you..." I clenched my fists. "Thanks to evil in this world, I've never known you. I wish... I wish that I could bring you back to life."

"Oh! That's what I was forgetting!"

"Huh...?"

"Here." Dad tossed me a stone. It looked like a regular old stone that could fit in my palm, roughly half the size of a Pokéball. "That is a Resurrection Stone. I had it with me in the spirit world. Based on the name, it does just that; it resurrects a once-living being. But in order to do that, you must absorb the soul of an immensely strong magic user."

"This magic... what is it?"

"Well, that's complicated to explain... I have an idea, though. You should follow my steps and travel to the land that I told you about. You'll be able to learn about magic there."

"That's great and all, but how do I get there exactly?"

Dad concentrated for a moment, and then suddenly, a map appeared in his hands.

"Wha...? How...?"

"It's a type of magic called Dimension Magic. With it, you can destroy matter, not normally possible according to the Law of Conservation of Matter and send it to a dimension non-accesible to humans. Whatever matter you destroy travels to that dimension and stays there until you Summon it again. Or you can just destroy matter from existence straight up. Dimension Magic also has other uses, but I'll leave that to you to find out."

"Wait, what are you talking about- ah! What's happening to me?" All of a sudden, I rose up off the ground and started glowing.

"I now bestow upon you the power of Dimension Magic." said dad in a mighty voice. All of a sudden, I could feel a massive amount of energy flowing through my bones. But it was different energy than I used to.

This was the power of Magic Energy.

The light around me blew off in a whirlwind and I was left standing there alone. Dad's spirit was no longer there. But his voice echoed:

"Give it your all. You can do it, my son. See you on the flipside, meaning, when you resurrect me."

"I will, dad. I'll avenge you. I swear on my life that I will do everything in my power to avenge you even if I can't bring you back."

"One more thing: You have the power within you." And with that, he disappeared.

I stood there confused, but I kept that in the back of my mind anyway.

I started walking back to Twinleaf Town. I was filled with a new kind of happiness. I wasn't depressed anymore. I was happy, knowing that I was going to, after all avenge my father and possibly resurrect him.

My last thought before drifting off was that there was still hope.


	27. Chapter 27: The Journey

The familiar sound of the morning Starly chirping in the trees filled my ears as I woke up. I sat up in bed, yawned and rubbed my eyes, and gathered my thoughts. I remembered: I had met my father's spirit last night and he bestowed magic upon me. I had some type of magic called Dimension Magic, but I hadn't tried it out yet. I looked around and saw my Pokégear lying on my dresser. I looked at the time and then wondered if the magic would work on it. I didn't remember dad telling me how to use it, all he said was, "I'll leave that to you to find out." Come on dad, couldn't you be a bit more helpful? I thought. I tried for a few minutes, and then somehow, someway, I got it to work, but of course I wasn't paying attention while doing it. I was hoping to strike lucky, and I did, I destroyed the particles of the Pokégear, but unfortunately, I didn't know how to bring it back, or what dad called Summoning. I didn't know entirely what I was doing. I was pretty excited, but confused at the same time. I started waving my arms and hands around like an idiot, until a few more minutes later when I found out that if I held my hands parallel to my waist and spaced my hands apart, then I could Summon the Pokégear back. I knew how to Destroy and Summon!

Suddenly while looking over at my bag, the biggest grin appeared on my face. Not a stupid or sinister grin, just an, "I've got an idea" grin.

A few minutes later...

"Oh, good morning Vincent!"

"Good morning mom. Hey mom, do you want to see something cool?"

"Sure, what is it?"

"Watch this." I showed her my Pokégear and then I Destroyed it and Summoned it.

"...! Where did you learn that?"

I didn't want her to find out that I met dad's spirit last night, so I said, "I, uh, discovered I had it within me this whole time."

"Hm. Just like your father." She nodded. I breathed a sigh of relief internally.

"Mom, I have great news." I decided that I was going to tell her about my journey.

"What's that?"

"I'm no longer depressed, which means that I'm going on a journey to destiny. I've figured it out, mom! I figured out how to resurrec-I mean, to avenge dad!" I honestly thought that she was going to say no, but to my surprise, she gave full support for me.

"Okay. I understand. Good luck out there. Remember, I'm always rooting for you." I hugged her and said goodbye, and headed out the door without my bag. I had left my bag upstairs, because I had emptied out its contents and Destroyed it to be Summoned later. Well, except for my scarf. I put that on along with my fedora.

How can I explain Summoning? Well, I have a clear picture in my mind of what's been Destroyed, and when ever I want to Summon something, I concentrate on it and Summon it. And Summoning is really quick too. How do I keep track of everything I Destroy? I don't know. Think of the item screen from A Link to the Past except a million times bigger. In my room, I Destroyed everything in my bag, even my Pokéballs, so I Summoned Fearow's ball and told him to fly south to Jubilife City.

In Jubilife City, I stocked up on items at the mart except for Pokéballs. I stocked up on mostly healing items, some other gear for the journey, some food, and anything else you'd pack for a trip. If you're confused about what the Destroy/Summon may look like, just think of an endless storage space. I got back on Fearow and took a look at the map dad gave me. It was a big map but there was a little line that he drew, probably from when he used the map. The line started from Kanto, and then went north over some islands and along a large continent. Then the line sorta went crazy and became all wavy due to a mountain pass and then even more north, the path traveled out to a country labeled Fiore and there was a circle around a dot labeled Magnolia. Jeez! That's like, halfway around the world! I thought. But I wanted to become strong. I wanted my Pokémon to become strong. I showed the map to Fearow and showed him where to fly to. He got the comical white face but then I encouraged him by tellling him that he could do it and he could do anything he set his mind to. He nodded and then we took air.

The rest of the day was pretty much airborne. Fearow kept building his stamina as we flew across the sky like a jet. He reached immense speeds that I couldn't calculate, and he didn't get tired for the whole trip. The sun started to set over the horizon before we flew over the islands depicted on the map and after that, we flew through the night until we reached the large continent. I withdrew the tired Fearow and struggled to keep awake as I pressed onwards. Eventually, I did get tired and took a power nap, only to wake up a few hours later and continue on with my journey.

As I walked along, a song played in my head. It was a song that I heard long ago, on the radio or something. It went like this:

 _"She's just a small town girl, living in a lonely world, she took the midnight train going anywhere..._

 _"He's just a city boy, born and raised in south Detroit, he took the midnight train going anywhere..._

 _"A singer in a smokey room, the smell of wine and cheap perfume, for a smile they can share the night it goes on and on and on and on..._

 _"Strangers, waitin',_

 _up and down the boulevard,_

 _their shadows, searchin' in the night..._

 _"Streetlight people,_

 _livin' just to find emotion,_

 _hidin' somewhere in the night..._

 _"Workin' hard to get my fill, everybody wants a thrill, payin' anything to roll the dice, just one more time..._

 _"Some will win._

 _"Some will lose._

 _"Some were born to sing the blues._

 _"Oh, the movie never ends, it goes on and on and on and on..._

 _"Strangers, waitin',_

 _up and down the boulevard,_

 _their shadows, searchin' in the night..._

 _"Streetlight people,_

 _livin' just to find emotion,_

 _hidin' somewhere in the night..._

 _"Don't stop believin',_

 _hold on to that feelin'._

 _"Streetlight people..._

 _"Don't stop believin'_

 _Hoolld onn..._

 _"Streetlight people..._

That song repeated in my mind until daybreak and I continued my very long journey on foot.

Most of the journey was just walking a bunch. Oh joy, leg day. More like leg three quarters of a year. On my journey, I saw many beautiful sights, I experienced new challenges. I visited many towns and cities along the way, and I met new people. I pressed on and on and on with determination and perseverance.

I came to the mountain pass depicted on the map and faced the challenge of scaling the large, rugged mountain range. I decided against having Fearow fly me to the top. I took it on by myself and learned independence. After weeks of rough climbing, and trial and error, through many mistakes, I finally made it to Fiore. What a nice name.

I traveled across the country and soon got used to the massive amount of magic energy present. I looked on the map and followed the route to the town of Magnolia. The trip to Magnolia took another several weeks, and in that time, I turned 17 years old. A week after my birthday, I traveled across a rocky path and when I looked on the map, I saw that I was in Magnolia, or at least the outskirts. In the distance, I could see a little building at the edge of the town. Could that be the guild that dad told me about? There was only one way to find out.

I walked into town bravely. A few people looked at me as I walked towards the guild. Once I got to the guild, I stood at the entrance for a long time before walking in.

"Hey, who's this guy?" said a female voice. I was startled by this sudden voice speaking and turned around.


	28. Chapter 28: The Guild

**Disclaimer: I don't own any quotes from the anime or manga of Fairy Tail or any canon characters. Only my own.**

I heard a female voice say, "Hey, who's this guy?" and I turned around to see a blonde girl and a pink haired guy with a blue cat. Walking on its hind legs. That's not something you'd see every day. "Is he a guild member?" said the blonde girl.

"No, I've never seen him before. Hey, guy, are you a new member? Man, a lot of things happen when you're gone for a day."

"Well, I just arrived here from a faraway land and I wanted to join this guild. What's it called? Oh, Fairy, uh, Tail. Huh. Are you two members here?"

"I am, but she's not yet. I mean, she's overeager to join. Uh, what's your name?"

"Vinny."

"Nice to meet ya! I'm Natsu!" He shook my hand. His hand was hot. Like fire, almost.

"I'm Lucy. Nice to meet you." She also shook my hand.

Suddenly, without warning, Natsu ran towards the doors and kicked it open. "I'M BAACK!" he yelled.

I was a little startled by his sudden actions. "Jeez, he was talking about overeagerness, he shouldn't be talking," I said to Lucy.

"I know, right?" she responded.

"That's Natsu for ya!" said a high pitched voice. And it wasn't Lucy's. The only other being around besides me and Lucy was the blue cat. Did it seriously just...

"Was that you?" I asked the cat.

"Me? Yeah! I was just telling you that Natsu is always like that. His firey personality fits his magic perfectly."

"First it's blue. Then it's standing on its hind legs. Now it's talking. What next, is it going to sprout wings?" I said to Lucy.

Lucy only nodded. "S-seriously?" I asked. Nod.

"That... is awesome! What's your name, cat?"

"My name is Happy! Nice to meet you!"

"You definetly look like happiness to me, that's for sure."

"Aye!"

"What is it with you and the 'aye!'?" said Lucy, annoyed. I didn't get it.

In the guild, there was a rowdy fight going on between guild members. I didn't know for sure, but I was willing to bet that Natsu started it. I tried my best to weave past the rowdiness and went looking for the master of the guild. I saw Lucy talking to a cute girl with a dress and then I saw Natsu fighting with some shirtless guy with black hair and a blue symbol on his chest. It looked like a bird with long legs about to kick something. Then I saw the same thing on Natsu's arm, and then on another guy's arm as well. I wanted to know about those symbols. I wanted to know what the guild was and the people in it. I saw Lucy and that girl talking, so I decided to work up the courage to speak to her. The fight was getting louder, so I had to talk a bit loud.

"Hello." I said to the girl.

"Oh, hi. Are you new?"

"Yeah. Uh, what's your name?"

"My name is Mirajane, but you can just call me Mira. Everyone calls me that. How about you? What's your name?"

"Oh, I'm Vinny."

"Well, it's great to meet you, Vinny."

"I just had a question Mira, because you know, you seem like you've been here a while. What are those little symbols that people have on their bodies? I saw some shirtless guy have a blue one on his chest and Natsu had one on his arm."

"Oh, that's our guild's symbol. Anyone who is new to Fairy Tail always gets a Guild Stamp to clarify that they're a part of Fairy Tail. If you're looking to join Fairy Tail, then you'll get one too. You can get it anywhere on your body."

"Cool. So how do I join the guild?"

"If you'd like to join this guild, then you can talk to our guild master."

"Who's the guild master?" I turned to see a huge guy had been hit so hard, he landed on top of Mira, who fainted.

"...! Oh my god! Are you alright? Why is everyone so crazy?"

"Ah, they're always like this. Ugh..." Mira fainted once more.

"Augh! Don't die, Mirajane!" screamed Lucy.

I looked around. Tables were broken and turned upside down.

"Messy..."

I saw a cloud of dust and a bunch of people fighting in it. Something flew at my head, but missed.

"Crazy..."

I saw some guy wearing glasses with a green coat. Two girls seemed infatuated with him.

"Mushy..."

I saw that shirtless guy. He had his underpants stolen by Natsu.

"Weird..."

"Everyone here is insane! Besides Mirajane, there's not one single sane person in this guild!" screamed Lucy.

"Hey, I'm completely sane, unlike the rest of these monkies. Woah!" A bottle flew by my head, in which I quickly dodged in time. Suddenly, a giant shadowy figure, most likely the guild master, rose up and yelled at the guild for making such a huge ruckus. Lucy nearly fainted.

"A MONSTER!" screamed Lucy.

"Oh my god! He's huge! Who the hell is that?"

"Oh, you were here master!" said Mira.

"Master!?" gasped Lucy.

"Ahahahahaha!" laughed Natsu. "Everyone's scared out of their pants! Victory is mine-" Suddenly, the master stomped his enormous foot down onto Natsu. Lucy grimaced.

The giant figure looked over at me and Lucy. "Oh? It looks like we have new recruits!" Suddenly, He shrank down to a very small size, only coming up to my waist.

"He's... tiny!" gasped Lucy.

"Wait a second! He's this guild's master?"

"That's right. This is Fairy Tail's guild master, Makarov Dreyar," said Mira.

Makarov tried a backflip onto a high ledge but failed by hitting the railing. But he quickly pulled himself up anyway.

"All of you! You've done it again!" He stuck out a large stack of papers. "Look at all this paperwork the Council sent me! These are all complaints from them!"

There's a Magic Council? I thought.

"All you guys do is make them angry at me!" Makarov clenched his teeth and balled his fists. What was he going to do now?

"However!" The stack of papers in his hand burst into flames. He threw it into the air and Natsu jumped up and caught it with his mouth.

"What the hell...?" Did I just see that? I thought, dumbfounded.

"To hell with the Council! Listen up! Magic is an unreasonable power, but it is born from reason! It is not some miraculous ability, it is the combination of the spirit that flows within us with the spirit that flows through nature itself, incarnated in physical form!"

What does he mean? I thought.

"It takes a strong mind and focus! In fact, magic is the pouring out of one's entire soul! One cannot progress in the way of Magic by being mindful of the watchful eyes over it! So I say, don't be afraid of those idiots from the Council! Follow the path you believe in! That's what it means to be a Fairy Tail wizard!" Makarov held up his arm and pointed his finger in the air. Everyone did the same except for Lucy and me because we didn't know what it meant. But she couldn't help making a big grin. I smiled a bit too.

Later, Lucy and I had gotten to know each other a bit more and we had gotten our guild stamps. Lucy had gotten hers on her right hand in pink. It took me a little bit, but I eventually decided to get one on my right bicep in blue-violet, my favorite color.

As crazy as the guild was, as weird and rowdy it was, I decided...

This was where I belonged. I was gonna love it.


	29. Chapter 29: The Salamander

"Woww! Look Natsu! I got a guild stamp!" Lucy shouted to Natsu.

"Oh. Yeah, cool. That's great. Welcome to the guild, Loonie," mumbled Natsu, was looking at a bulletin board covered with papers with lots of curvy writing on them and lots of numbers.

"My name is Lucy, idiot!" shouted Lucy at Natsu.

I sat down at the little bar where Mirajane was working. "Hey Mira, What's that 'request board' that Natsu is looking at?"

"Oh that? Well, I'll try to explain it the best I can. On the request board, there are jobs that people in the guild can take. The jobs are ranked in difficulty by the amount of money you earn from the job. The harder the job, the bigger the pay. Take for instance, if a job requires you to defeat a big, tough monster, the reward will be around 150,000 to 200,000 Jewels."

"Oh, wow! What kind of jewels? Why so many?" I asked, astonished.

"What do you mean- oh wait, you're not from around here? Okay so, the currency here in Fiore is Jewels, not literal jewels like diamonds. Otherwise everyone in Fiore would be extremely rich."

"Hah, if only diamonds were that abundant. But back to the request board, how do I get a job? Do I need to do something first?"

"No, all you do is just, take a job and complete it. That's all."

"Huh. Guess it's a way to make money around these parts."

"Make sure you pick a job with a good reward before someone else can, Natsu!" shouted Happy by the request board.

"Oh, sweet! 150,000 Jewels just to get rid of some thieves? Oh man! I'm sure as hell taking this one! The others are pretty much crap."

"What?! That's a job?" I asked, astounded.

"Yes, some jobs can be like that. A simple job with a great reward. But it all depends on how much the creator of the job makes it," informed Mirajane. Suddenly, A little boy with big eyes and black hair came up to Makarov.

"Oh yeah, I forgot Makarov was sitting there..." I muttered.

"Hey, why hasn't my dad come back?"

"Haaahh... look, you're really getting on my nerves, Romeo. Your dad's a wizard, so have faith in him and wait patiently for him."

"B-but sir! He said that he would return in two to three days, but he's been gone for more than a week now!"

"Hmm... if I remember correctly, your father took the job on Mt. Hakobe."

"Yeah, and? That's not far from here! Why won't someone just go and look for him already?"

"Listen, kid! Your dad's a wizard, just like everyone else here in this guild! Now why don't you just go home, have your milk and cookies and wait patiently?!"

"Y-you jerk!" Romeo punched Makarov square in the face and ran off crying and yelling, "I hate all of you jerks!"

"Jeez Makarov," I muttered under my breath. "Poor kid."

"It must be rough on him," added Lucy.

"It may sound like Makarov couldn't care less, but he's honestly worried too because Macao is a wizard of Fairy Tail," said Mirajane.

"I wish I could go and save the kid's dad," I said. "Well actually, why don't I?"

SMASH! A loud crashing sound came from the request board where I saw Natsu had angrily punched the request board, leaving a big dent in it.

"Jeez Natsu! What the hell do you think you're doing? Don't break the request board! Some of us need to make some money around here!" shouted a guildmate. He walked over to Makarov and watched Natsu dramatically leave the building. "Knowing Natsu, he's probably gonna go to Mt. Hakobe to rescue Macao."

"Doesn't that kid ever learn?" added a buck-toothed guy.

Lucy, as confused as I was walked over and sat down next to me. "Why did Natsu react like that?" she asked Mirajane.

"It's because Natsu was just like Romeo, in that his father went away and didn't come back. Well, not his biological father, actually. You see, Natsu was raised by a dragon."

"A dragon?!" exclaimed Lucy.

"Yes. Everyone in Fairy Tail carries a history behind them, and Natsu is no exception. He was raised by a dragon named Igneel, and Igneel was the only father Natsu had ever known. A long time ago, Natsu was apparently roaming around in a forest of some kind, and he was found by Igneel. Igneel took Natsu in and taught him how to read and write, and taught him magic. More specifically the lost Dragon Slayer Magic, in Natsu's case, Fire Dragon Slayer Magic. But then one day, Igneel went away, disappeared without a trace, and Natsu lives for the day when he will finally meet Igneel again."

"Wow. That's pretty deep," I said. I wanted to tell Lucy and Mirajane about how my story was similar, but I didn't want to be too cliché at the moment.

"I'm gonna follow Natsu," I said suddenly. Lucy and Mirajane both looked kind of startled. "Before you ask why, my main reason is because I know Natsu's feeling."

"I'm coming too. I can't just sit around and be useless," said Lucy.

"Sure. Be my guest." And we set off.

We soon caught up to Natsu and took a horse-pulled cart to the mountain. The ride was moderately pleasant despite the smell of the horse's shitty asses, and the countryside was a spectacular sight. Unfortunately for Natsu, he wasn't having such a great time due to extreme motion sickness.

"*Glump* Ugh, I'm never taking a horse-pulled cart again..." groaned Natsu.

"What's wrong, Natsu? You good? Did you catch a stomach bug?" I asked.

"No, he's got extreme motion sickness," said Lucy.

"What?! He gets motion sickness even from a little cart? Jeez, Natsu! What's wrong with you?"

"I c-can't help it-blorf..." Natsu vomitted on the floor of the cart.

"O-oh jeez, uh, I-I can clean it up." Using Dimension Magic, I destroyed the vomit from existence. "Gross."

"What kind of magic is that? I've never seen that before," asked Lucy.

"That was my Dimension Magic," I replied and told her about it.

"Just out of curiosity, what kind of magic do you use?" I asked.

"Me? I'm a celestial wizard. I use these keys..." She held up a bundle of odd shaped golden keys. "... And depending on what key I use, I can call in a celestial spirit for a short amount of time. Take for instance, Taurus, or Aquarius."

"Oh! Like the constellations in the night sky!"

"Yeah, I guess you could compare it to that," Lucy replied. Suddenly, the cart stopped. Natsu looked up.

"Oh, we've stopped. Yeah! Alright! We stopped moving! Finally! Woohoo!" Natsu continued his little whoops of joy as the driver told us that it was far as he could take us. Natsu, Happy, Lucy and I all got out of the cart and continued our journey on foot. Oh joy. More leg day.

If there was anything worse than the blizzard on Route 217 in Sinnoh, this, Mt. Hakobe, really took it too far. It was cold. Really cold. And the colder it got, the more Lucy complained.

"Jeez! It's cold! This whole place is a frozen wasteland! Why is there even a blizzard in the middle of summer?! I get the fact that it's a mountain, but still! There shouldn't be a blizzard like this anywhere! I'm gonna catch a cold! Hand over that blanket!"

"God, she just keeps on going, huh?" muttered Natsu.

"Aye," added Happy.

"Lucy, I could warm you up. I'm technically a furnace," I offered.

"Your own body heat won't be enough in this blizzard! I won't be able to feel anything!"

I simply just walked over to Lucy and placed my hand on her arm.

"OW! Oh, hot! Hot! Ooh! Jeez! How the heck...?"

I ignited a Flame Ball in my hand and charged it up.

"I usually use this for combat, but it can also heat you up even if you're standing two feet away. It may burn you if you stand too close."

"Oh, thanks Vinny." But as we trudged through the snow, she found it to be a bit difficult to stay at the right distance without being frozen or burned.

"Actually, you know what? I have an idea." She took one of her keys and prepared to use it. "Open, Gate of the Clock Constellation: Horologium!" Suddenly, a big grandfather clock dropped out of the sky and hit the ground with a _thud_. Then it sprouted arms, and then a head.

"Tick tock," said Horologium.

"Woah! A clock! Cool..." gaped Natsu.

Lucy started talking, but we both couldn't hear a word she said. All we could hear was the howling blizzard.

"What? We can't hear you!" shouted Natsu.

"She says, 'I'm staying in here and I won't come out.'" said Horologium.

"Why'd you even tag along in the first place?" shouted Natsu over the blizzard.

"'What kind of crazy job would force Macao to come to a place like this?', she inquires."

"Humph. You should've asked that before we left," said Natsu. "Macao left to fight a Vulcan. A big monster."

"Fascinating," I muttered, imitating Spock.

Lucy looked shocked for a moment.

"'I want to go back to the guild,' she says."

"'Be my guest,' I say back," muttered Natsu.

"Aye," added Happy.

"Don't be such a dick, Natsu. Leave her be. If she wanted to come along, then that's her problem," I said.

"Whatever." Natsu looked out into the distance and screamed, "Macao! Where are you?! Macao!"

Suddenly, I heard a noise from above. A big monkey dropped down from above in an attempt to hit Natsu. I pushed Natsu out of the way just in time.

"Is that a Vulcan?!" I shouted. Natsu didn't answer because he was watching the monkey looking into Horologium's case at Lucy licking his lips all the while. Then he picked up Horologium and bolted.

"'Don't just stand there, do something!', she yells furiously," called Horologium. I was doing something though. I ran furiously after the Vulcan. It was significantly faster than me, but it never left my sight. As I ran furiously through the white, howling blizzard, the hail flew into my eyes due to me running so fast. It stung like a hornet's sharp stinger, but I had a goal, and I was determined to save my friend, no matter what. I was trying, panting and sweating all the while, even though my sweat instantly froze to my head once it was excreted from my pores. My brain was freezing up, my heart was pounding against my chest so hard that I thought for a split second that it would break free and make a mad dash after the Vulcan itself. My swift footsteps could be heard over the ferocious blizzard and my breath was heavier than a boulder sinking to the depths of the ocean. I was losing steam though, and I thought that I was going to collapse on the ground and die a cold death right there but then I remembered my father and my mission. I Summoned the resurrection stone and took a good long look at it while constantly saying to myself:

 _I_ will _do it. I_ know _it._

I forgot all about running out of breath. Heck, I forgot all about breathing at all. I told my pounding heart to shut the fuck up and I charged after the Vulcan. I did catch up to it and I charged up a punch aiming for the Vulcan's head. I missed, but the the Vulcan ran into a cave. A frigid, icy cave. It set down Horologium with Lucy inside and danced around like an idiot.

 _Beep-beep beep-beep!_ A digital alarm clock sound went off and Horologium disappeared.

"No! Horologium! Don't go! Give me extra time! Please!" Lucy shouted.

Natsu ran in yelling something, but he slipped on the ice causing him to fall and slide along the icy floor.

"How lame..." said Lucy. "Why does he always feel the need to make an entrance?

Learning from Natsu, I ignited my feet and ran towards the Vulcan. Because of my ignited dogs, I was able run on the ice without slipping. I jumped up and Flame Kicked the monkey in the face. Unfortunately, it dodged my attack and quickly punched me in the back, sending me flying a few feet away.

I smirked. "A challenge. An actual challenge! This'll be good." Natsu got up and started yelling furiously at the monkey.

"Alright, ya stupid monkey! Where's Macao?! Where are you hiding him?" Natsu yelled. Like the monkey would understand- no, I was wrong.

The monkey actually responded by showing Natsu the cave's entrance as if to say that Macao was hiding outside. Natsu ran towards the entrance yelling into the blizzard. Wait, something didn't seem right. Why would Macao be hiding out in the blizzard? It was too cold out there and Macao would freeze to death if he stayed out there for more than a day. Unless the Vulcan was lying and trying to-

Oh shit.

"Natsu! Look out!" I yelled. The Vulcan was coming up from behind at tremendous speed, ready to kick Natsu. Natsu turned around quick enough to see the Vulcan's foot coming at his face, but he couldn't dodge in time.

"Monkey...!" shouted Natsu as he fell into a ravine.

"Rrrgggh... alright then, monkey. Let's see what you've got." I muttered.

"Not liking men! Like women!" yelled the Vulcan, dancing around like an idiot.

"Let's see if you like fire, monkey bitch." I ran at the Vulcan in my attempts to Flame Kick him again. This time, I landed my attack as soon as he turned around, which resulted in him flying back with a smoking foot mark on his face. I dashed at him again while charging up a Flame Ball attack. I shot the Flame Ball at his head, causing him to fly back onto the ground.

"So you think it's alright to hurt my friend as if he was a cheap toy, huh? You think you can steal my guildmate and take her somewhere so that you can make sweet love to her? I'll make it so that you will never even think about treating my guild mates this way ever again!" I shouted, jumping down onto the Vulcan, about to kick it into the ice floor. Suddenly, it moved out of the way, causing me to kick the ice and ultimately resulting in me burying my foot in the ground. I desperately tried to pull my foot out of the ice, but the Vulcan rushed towards me and aimed a punch towards my head. I blocked his huge fist with my arms, but that left my foot still in the ground with no way to get it out, because I was blocking the giant fist with my arms. The monkey tried to punch me using his other fist, in which I tried blocking that too. I was strong enough to hold him back, but I still couldn't get my foot out of the icy floor.

"Yaahhh!" Suddenly, Natsu came out of nowhere and kicked the monkey back.

"Natsu!" shouted Lucy.

"Thanks Natsu. I owe you," I sighed in relief.

"How did you not die out there?" asked Lucy. Natsu turned to her and grinned.

"It's all thanks to Happy. Thanks, little buddy!"

"Aye!"

"So, how was it that you hate other forms of transportation, but somehow Happy is okay?"

"What're you talking about? Happy's not a form of transportation, he's my friend! How rude!"

I heated up the ice with my hands and soon got my foot out of the ice. I saw the Vulcan pulling itself up. It looked pissed as hell.

"MY WOMAN!" he screamed angrily. He jumped up and came crashing down on Natsu with a mighty fist, but Natsu blocked the attack.

"Listen, you jerk! I consider everyone in the Fairy Tail guild my friend! Whether it's Gramps or Mira, or even those jerks Gray and Elfman! Especially my buddy Happy... Even newcomers like Lucy and Vinny! Which is why..." A magic circle with a picture of a dragon on it appeared under Natsu's feet. Something triggered in my mind. One thought lead to another, but I didn't know what triggered the thought process. I had a memory though, a memory back from the Pokémon Regions. Something was familiar. I needed another clue though.

"I'm not leaving without Macao!" Natsu used his own Flame Kick attack or something and kicked the monkey in the gut. It flew back while dodging icicles the dropped from the ceiling. It swiped the icicles which flew all around at Natsu and even Lucy, who, fortunately, jumped clear of the attack in time. However, the monkey had also created a dust cloud, cloaking the area. Natsu couldn't see anything, and the Vulcan got an opportunity to attack Natsu, punching him in the gut and sending him flying. Natsu had just enough time to react to the Vulcan's follow-up attack, holding the Vulcan's huge fists literally a foot away from his face. But despite Natsu's strength, he started to struggle.

"Natsu needs energy!" said Happy. "Oh! Vinny, lend Natsu some of your fire power!"

"But how?"

"Feed him some of your fire!"

Thinking back to the guild hall, I remember Natsu caught the flaming pile of papers in his mouth and consumed the fire. So I began to charge a Flame Ball, which I shot at Natsu, hoping that he would somehow consume the fire. The Flame Ball flew towards Natsu, but covered him in bright orange flames.

"Oh no! Natsu's gonna burn alive!" I shouted.

"Just wait!" said Happy. As I watched Natsu, The flames started to get sucked up into his mouth. A loud slurping sound could be heard coming from Natsu, as if he were slurping ramen noodles, and the flames were soon gone.

"Ah! That was actually better than I expected. Thanks, Vinny! But now, I'm all fired up! Fire Dragon Roar!" Natsu spewed out a burst of flames from his mouth, causing the Vulcan to constantly wap at its face. Before the Vulcan could react, Natsu ran towards the Vulcan and used a finishing blow.

"Fire Dragon Iron Fist!" I say finishing blow because when the dust settled, the Vulcan was upside down against the wall, unconscious.

"Yeah, that'll teach him a lesson!" shouted Natsu.

"Wait, weren't you supposed to ask him where Macao was?" asked Lucy.

"Oh yeah, I forgot about that. Well, I suppose we could just look for him-" Suddenly, the Vulcan lit up, which startled us all. But when the light faded, Natsu gasped.

"Macao?!" said Natsu.

"What?! Are you telling me that that big perverted monkey was actually your friend this whole time?" shouted Lucy.

"Yeah, he was taken over by that Vulcan." said Happy.

"What do you mean, 'taken over'?"

"The Vulcan used a Possession Spell. You see, Vulcans are monsters who survive by taking over bodies. They're evil body snatchers!

In no time, we had Macao laying out on the ground on a blanket, covered in bandages.

"He must've put up a good fight before the Vulcan got to him," said Happy.

"Don't you die on me now, Macao! Romeo is waiting for you at home! Open your eyes!"

Suddenly, Macao's eyes fluttered open and he looked at us all.

"You're okay!" said Natsu.

Macao sighed. "I'm so pathetic. I defeated 19 of those brutes, but the last one... that's the one that got me. I'm so angry at myself, I'm embarrassed to go home and face my son."

"Come on, don't be like that! You defeated 19 of those monsters!" said Natsu.

"Yeah! I'm already pretty strong, and I could barely defeat one of those idiots!" I said.

"Eh? Who're you? Are you new to Fairy Tail?" asked Macao.

"Yeah. My name is Vinny. Nice to meet you, Macao!" I stuck out my hand. He gripped my hand and greeted me. "Welcome to the Fairy Tail guild."

"What's with that grin Lucy?" asked Happy, jokingly. Lucy didn't take it as so.

"You watch yourself cat, otherwise I'll snap your neck," growled Lucy.

"Jeez, calm down, Lucy! He was only kidding."

"I don't need your input!"

"Aye."

"Shut up, Happy," both of us said. Happy simply ignored us.

"Happy? I just have a question. About Natsu, that is. How is it that he was able to consume my fire? Or any fire for that matter?" I asked Happy in the cart on the way back to Magnolia. Speaking of Natsu, he was getting sick again.

"He uses his magic to do that. He can be reenergized if he consumes another source of fire."

"Why can't he consume his own fire to reenergize himself?"

"Because that's like drinking his own spit. If you had to drink your own spit to stay rehydrated, you'd die. If Natsu had to live off of his own fire, he would die."

"But how does he consume it?"

"It's because he has all the qualities of the Fire Dragon, minus the wings. He has the lungs of the Dragon, which lets him breathe fire, he has the scales of the Dragon, which lets him dissolve the fire, and he has the claws of the Dragon, for him to attack with fire. The magic he uses is an ancient type of magic that's rarely used anymore called Dragon Slayer Magic. His particular kind is called Fire Dragon Slayer Magic. That's why people call him the Salamander."

As soon as Happy said _salamander_ , my mind began filling in gaps like filling in holes of cheese. And then it hit me: back in Eterna City, Cynthia told me about a boy whose name started with N, had fire powers just like me, and was called Salamander. She was talking about Natsu!

Later, as I watched Natsu reunited Macao with Romeo, I was filled with complete satisfaction. Romeo called to us to say thank you as we walked away into the sunset. I was standing to the left of Natsu, who was to the left of Lucy. We talked as we walked back to the guild. I told Natsu of the epiphany I'd had on the ride back. He told me that he did remember a woman with blonde hair and black clothes. He also remembered that she had some kinds of animals and other creatures that he'd never seen before, but that was all he remembered. I was again, filled with satisfaction and happiness. All of us were. I mean, if someone else was in my shoes, who wouldn't be?


	30. Chapter 30: The Quest

Where am I? I thought as I woke up. I remembered that the day before, we saved Macao from Mt. Hakobe, but after that, I wasn't sure where I was or how I got there. I sat up.

I was in some kind of apartment. I cleaned the eye crust out of my eyes and yawned. I got up and saw that I was wearing a blue pair of shorts and a gray tank top. I heard talking coming from another room which sounded like Natsu and Happy. Suddenly, I heard screaming.

"My BEDROOM!" I heard Lucy scream. I rushed to see what was going on. So I was in Lucy's house. How? And why? I didn't remember. I ran into Lucy's bedroom to see Lucy kicking Natsu in the face, probably for breaking and entering. "Get the hell out of my house, you jerks!" she yelled furiously.

"Aw, come on! We were just checking out your new place."

"Aye."

"Oh yeah? Well, what you call 'checking out' I call barging in! And I'm sure what I would call barging in, the police would call breaking and entering!

"Called it." I didn't notice that I said it out loud.

Lucy turned around and faced me. "Oh. I forgot you were here. I don't blame you for not having a house yet, but these guys! Having been for so long, they must have a house of some kind!"

"Yeah, but your house is way cooler than ours!" said Natsu. He looked over at a desk and saw a stack of papers on it. "Hey, what the heck is this?"

Instantly, Lucy grabbed the papers from Natsu at lightning speed and kicked him in the face again. "It's nothing!"

"Ow, so you just kicked me over nothing?"

"Yeah, maybe I would!"

"Dude, it's her personal business. You shouldn't be snooping around here, let alone breaking and entering," I suggested.

"Yeah! Tell 'em, Vinny!" yelled Lucy excitedly.

"Nah, I like this place!" said Natsu.

"I hate boys!" cried Lucy.

xxxx

"Look guys, I just moved in and I'm not in the mood for guests," said Lucy irritably.

"Ahem-" I coughed which caused Lucy to look towards me. I pointed to myself.

"Your case is different. You were practically begging to stay a night anyway because you just came here too. Also, you owe me for letting you stay."

"What is this, Hotel de Lucy? Get a complimentary water bottle with the room! Your money back guaranteed!" I said in a silly advertisement voice. "Also, does it look like I have Jewel? I haven't even started jobs yet."

"I guess that's true, but these two shouldn't be here."

"How much would I owe you anyway?"

"70,000 Jewel."

"Holy shit! Why so much?"

"That's how much my rent costs."

"Don't you have money already?"

"Yeah, but I need money for rent as well."

"So what're you gonna do with the rest of your money?"

"Probably buy some magic stuff, like keys." Natsulooked up.

"That reminds me, Lucy. Can you show us all of your key guys you collected?" asked Natsu.

"They're not called 'key guys', idiot. They're Celestial Spirits," said Lucy.

"How many Celestial Spirits do you have a contract with, Lucy?" asked Happy.

She held up her keys. "Six units. Celestial Spirits are counted in units. I have three silver keys, and three gold keys. The silver ones are common and can be bought in magic stores. The ones I have are Horologium the Clock, Crux the Southern Cross, and Lyra the Harp. But the golden ones are super rare and there's only twelve of them. The ones I have are Taurus the Golden Bull, Aquarius the Water Bearer, and Cancer the Giant Crab."

"Wow! Giant crab!" drooled Natsu.

"Crab! Delicious!" added Happy.

"Ugh, is food the only thing you guys care about?" groaned Lucy. Then she had an 'oh, yeah!' expression. "Now that I remember, I still have to form a contract with the key I bought in HargeonTown. Conveniently, you guys are here. Perfect timing! I'll show you how a Celestial Wizard makes a contract with a Celestial Spirit."

"Are they going to do a blood seal?" whispered Happy very loudly.

"I don't know, but it seems like a pain in the ass!" answered Natsu.

"I can hear you guys!" said Lucy. She took a key and held it out. "Open, Gate of Canis Minor! Nikora!" Instantly, a glowing bubble started to form and a small, white figure with an orange nose dropped down, shaking uncontrollably. It looked extremely nervous. It looked less like a dog and more like a tiny snowman. (For those of you who don't know, Canis Minor is the Little Dog Constellation and Canis Major is the Big Dog Constellation.)

Natsu and Happy stood there with their mouths wide open and just stared at Nikora, which made the little thing shake even more.

"Ahem. Ah, don't mind us," said Natsu, holding in his laughter.

"It wasn't a mistake!" protested Lucy. She picked up Nikora and embraced him. "Oh, you're so cute!" Natsu simply put on his "seriously?" face.

"See, it doesn't take much magic power to open Nikora's gate. So that's why he's popular to keep as a pet."

"Natsu, what we see here is human ego," whispered Happy not so quietly.

"Just as I thought, Loogie is pretty scary," "whispered" Natsu.

"It's Lucy, dipwad! And I can still hear you!" said Lucy. She let Nikora onto the floor and took out a notepad. She started asking Nikora what days he was free and what days he wasn't. Natsu and Happy sat, watching Lucy as she took care of business.

"What a simple process," muttered Natsu.

"Aye," added Happy.

After a few minutes of Lucy conversing with Nikoraand writing things down, she rose up and said, "Okay! The contract is complete!"

"That's a rather simple process, isn't it?" asked Happy.

"Right?" added Natsu. Lucy smiled.

"It may look simple, but it's actually very important. See, Celestial Wizards keep contracts, or promises. Therefore, the only thing in this world I can't break is a promise."

"What about expensive pottery?" I muttered, grinning. Lucy looked at me, annoyed.

"Oh, that's right! I need to name him!"

"Isn't his name Nikora?" questioned Happy.

"Yeah, but that's his common name," replied Lucy. "Oh, I've got it! Come here, Plue!"

"Blue? But he's white," I said.

"No, not Blue, Plue. With a 'P'," said Lucy.

"Plue?" said both Natsu and Happy.

"Yeah! Doesn't it sound adorable? Right Plue?" Pluemade a little sound that was supposedly agreement.

"Huh. He looks rather pressured and displeased," I said.

"No, he's not. Not at all," Lucy replied.

"Wait, Plue is a puppy, but he isn't barking. How weird," commented Happy.

"Yeah, but you're a cat! I haven't heard you 'meow' ever since we met!"

"Touchè..." muttered Happy.

Lucy let Plue go onto the floor, in which he started bouncing around excitedly. "Oh, I wonder what's wrong?" said Lucy. Plus bounced around Natsu and made some weird noises.

"Hey, you're right, Plue! You say great things!" exclaimed Natsu. Plue smiled big.

"What...! He can understand Plue!?" said Lucy.

"Well, when you think about it, he has an animal sidekick, so," I said.

"Yeah, but Happy can actually speak like a human!" Lucy pointed out.

"Touchè..." I muttered.

Suddenly, Natsu got up and creepily started at Lucy like he was inspecting her.

"Why are you staring at me like that?" she said.

"Okay! I've decided! Let's make a team!" Natsuexclaimed.

"Aye! Sounds cool!" said Happy.

"Team?" questioned Lucy.

"Yeah!" exclaimed Happy. "So, everyone in Fairy Tail is friends with each other, but those who work well together gather and create teams. So, if a job request is too difficult, then having a team will make it easier!"

"Wow! I like that idea!" said Lucy. Lucy and Natsubumped fists and slapped hands together.

"Okay, Lucy! It's a deal!"

"Contract sealed!"

"Aye!"

"Alright! Let's go find a job immediately!" said Natsu. He took out a paper. "I've already got one lined up!"

"Jeez, you're so impatient! Here, let me have a look," said Lucy. Natsu grew a sinister grin that I was able to catch a glimpse of. "Okay, the town of Shirotsume... What?! You're kidding! They'll pay 200,000 Jewel just to steal a book from Duke Everlue's Mansion?"

"I know!" said Natsu. "It's almost too good to be true!"

"Oh, wait. Caution! He's a lecher and a pervert. Currently hiring blonde maids...!"

"Hm. We know a blonde girl, don't we, Happy?"

"Aye! Let's have her dress up and infiltrate the mansion!"

"Y-you guys! You both knew from the beginning!"

"Oh, so that's why they barged in. Good one, Natsu!" I laughed.

"Hey! Don't encourage him, Vinny!"

"I hear that Celestial Wizards never break a promise. Isn't that great?" Natsu said smugly.

"But you tricked me! That's not fair!"

"But you made the promise! Let's practice. Try calling Happy, 'Master.'"

"No way! I would never call that stupid feline 'Master'!"

Later, we got in a cart to travel to Shirotsume Town and immediately, Natsu began turning green.

"So, how's the ride, 'Master'?" said Lucy smugly.

"I can see maids flying..." groaned Natsu before throwing up on the floor. I had to clean it up again.

"Hey, I'm supposed to play as 'Master'!" cried Happy.

"Shut up, you stupid cat!" Happy payed no attention and started furiously eating a fish. Stereotypical? Yeah, I'll say. "By the way Natsu, why did you decide to team up with me?"

"Because you're a good person, that's why." Lucy looked touched. "Although, you're kinda weird," said Natsu as he threw up again. I had to clean it up again. Lucy's expression rapidly changed from touched to annoyed.

"Well, this is still my first job, so I'll show you."

"What? I didn't think you liked our plan," said Happy with his mouth full of food.

"Our enemy is a perverted old man. I may look innocent, but I have full confidence in my sex appeal."

"I'm a cat, so I can't comment on that." Lucy put on her 'annoyed' face again.

"Hey Natsu, I have a question," I said.

"What is it? Make it quick because I don't think I can talk much. Oomph," Natsu said before barfing again. I prayed to God that when I Summoned, I wouldn't end up with my hands full of Natsu'svomit.

"I was thinking, the team that you made, do you think that I could be a part of the team? I mean, I know I'm pretty damn weak, but I could develop my powers over time."

"Oogh, y-yeah. I guess you should be a part of the team. I can't say that I've known you for long, nor can I say that to Lucy, but you both seem like nice people, even if you are a bit strange. Ugh…GLOOMP! *Thwapth*" groaned Natsu as he coughed up another pile of smelly barf. Oh jeez, the possibility of Summoning his barf could be greater than I thought. I would seriously lash out at him if that ever happened, even accidentally. I may have said that I had a clear picture in my mind of what was being Summoned, but nothing is perfect.

We arrived in Shirotsume Town and began walking down the streets. A lot of people looked at us funny as we walked by. Jeez, never seen guild wizards around these parts?

"Ugh, I'm never taking a cart ever again," said Natsu.

"Dude, you said that last time and I'm willing to bet that you're gonna say it again in the near future," I said.

"Sh-shut up. Don't make me throw up on you," he joked. (I hope.) "We need to eat. Well, speaking for myself, I need to eat. 'Cuz I don't know about you guys."

"You can speak for me too," I said.

"Hey Natsu, why don't you eat your own fire?" questioned Lucy.

"Oh sure. Why not just eat Taurus or Plue while you're at it?"

"It's not like I could anyway!"

"Same difference."

"Now that I think, I do remember Happy telling Vinny that you couldn't eat your own fire."

"He did? When was this?"

"When we were coming back from rescuing Macao on Mt. Hakobe. You were passed out and sick at the time. That's what you get from taking public transportation," I said.

"It's not my fault that I can't stand public transportation. That's just how I work," retorted Natsu. "Hey, let's eat there!" Natsu pointed to a restaurant nearby.

"Nah, you guys can eat by yourselves," said Lucy.

"What's her deal? It's more fun to eat together," muttered Natsu.

"Guess she doesn't want to eat. Well, her loss," I said.

After burning through 5 dishes in a row each, Natsu ordered more food and we ate like a pack of wolves.

"Mph, greasy, let's save some for Lucy," mumbled Natsu with a mouthful of food.

"Aye. She seems like the kind of person who would eat greasy things," added Happy with his mouth full too.

"What's that supposed to mean? Since when do I like greasy things?" said Lucy from behind me.

"Gah! You startled me-" I started to say but I was cut off when I saw what she was wearing.

"Aw, I know you guys think I look super cute! I know I look cute in anything," she said.

I basically got a comical nosebleed while Natsu and Happy just sat there with their mouths wide open, bits of chewed up food falling out of their mouths.

"Have you finished dining, Master?" she said jokingly.

"What do we do, Natsu? We told her to do it as a joke, but she took it seriously!" whispered Happy quite loudly.

"It's too late to tell her," Whispered Natsu equally as loud. "Let's just go along with it."

"I can still hear you guys!" said Lucy.

We walked to a large mansion that I thought at first was Everlue's mansion, but then I realized as we walked in that it was our job employer's house.

"Hello. I'm your employer, Kaby Melon," said the employer.

"Wow! Melon!" exclaimed Happy.

"Such a delicious name you have, sir!" added Natsu.

"Hey, that's rude, you guys!" said Lucy.

"Hahaha, don't worry. I get that a lot," he chortled. "But let's get to the point and talk about the job now. My request regards the book 'Daybreak' which Duke Everlue has at the moment. I want you to destroy the book."

"Sure! We'll burn the whole place down if you want!" said Natsu.

"Aye!" added Happy.

"That's a bit excessive, dude," I commented.

"If you guys do that, then you'll be thrown in jail. Besides, I wanna know why he wants the book to be destroyed," said Lucy.

"Who cares? We're talkin' 200,000 Jewel here!" said Natsu.

"Oh, you haven't heard? The reward has been pushed to 2,000,000 Jewel," said Melon.

"2,000,000?!" we all exclaimed.

"Oh my god! 2,000,000 divided by 4... wait, what is 2,000,000 Jewel divided by 4?" said Natsu.

"Um... 50,000 Jewel," I said, Destroying my calculator. "But why, may I ask, why did you raise the reward?"

"Because the book must be destroyed at all costs. I cannot let it exist."

We sat in silence for a second, then suddenly...

"Aw, hell yeah! I'm all fired up!" yelled Natsu as he darted out of the house.

"Wait! Natsu!" Lucy called after Natsu and chased after him. I couldn't run as fast as him, so I called out Fearow to help.

"Fearow! Fly up to Natsu!" Fearow cocked his head as if to say, "Who?" "The pink haired guy!" He nodded and took flight.

Once we got to Everlue's Mansion, Natsu, Happy and I hid behind some bushes while we let Lucy do the talking.

"Hello? Is anyone home? I'm here to apply for the maid position!"

"Make sure you do it right!" whisper-yelled Natsu.

"Good luck!" Happy added.

Suddenly, the ground trembled. The brick road behind Lucy rose up a bit and then a large figure jumped out of it. I looked up in the air, and holy shit. It was a maid, but holy fuck, was she fat as all hell.

"Maid position? Master, it seems she's here for the new maid position," said the maid.

"BOYOYO! Did I hear my name being called?" said another figure who came out of the ground. I assumed he was Duke Everlue, but oh my god. He was as fat and ugly as the maid. What the hell did he live on? Twinkies and Hot Pockets?

"Let's have a look, then," said Everlue.

"I look forward to working with you!" said Lucy.

Everlue looked Lucy up and down carefully.

"Nah. I have no use for you. Go away, ugly."

Lucy looked absolutely shocked. I was confused. Why would he call such a fine looking girl 'ugly'? That was just rude. She looked pretty to me.

"Yeah. Go away, ugly," added the maid.

"Listen. For someone as distinguished as I..." More extremely ugly maids popped up behind Everlue, "Beautiful girls are the only thing I want!" The super ugly maids cuddled up to Everlue and they walked away with him into the mansion. Lucy returned to us, depressed.

"You're hopeless," scoffed Natsu. Lucy sobbed uncontrollably.

"No I'm not! That Everlue idiot has a weird taste in women!"

"Excuses..." muttered Happy.

"He called me ugly, too..." cried Lucy.

"Hey, don't take what that ugly piece of shit said so seriously, Lucy!" I said. "So he doesn't like beautiful girls. He called you ugly? Let it be! He obviously has no idea what he's talking about."

"Y-you think I'm beautiful?" said Lucy. "Th-Thanks."

"Er, well, yeah, I guess," I said, avoiding eye contact. "Uh, Natsu, you think Lucy is pretty, don't you?"

"Yeah, sure. She was definitely a lot better looking than those ugly maids," he noted. "But! When it comes down to this, it's time to change to plan T!"

"T? What's that stand for? Termination?" I asked. "Or does it stand for Turtle?"

"No, the first one was closer. T stands for Trashing!" said Natsu.

"Hah! Good one, Natsu."

"How can you say that, Vinny?!" said Lucy. "You were the one who said, 'That's a bit excessive'!"

"Eh, whatever. Now seeing how ugly that geezer was, I wanna smash his face in! Also he's a total dick, but whatever."

We walked up to the mansion and we climbed up to one of the windows. Fearow flew me up to where Natsu was, and Happy flew Lucy up to the roof after Natsu.

"Thanks, Happy!" said Lucy.

"Aye!"

"Why the hell are we sneaking around? We're supposed to be trashing this place! Why don't we just burst in through the front door? That would be a lot more fun!" complained Natsu.

"Nah, I think we'd get caught by Everlue. Then he'd probably call the military and then we'd be thrown in jail, and our guild would be history," I mentioned.

"Whatever. I still like my idea better."

Natsu melted the glass and opened the window from the inside. We climbed inside what seemed a storage room. Then we split up and looked for the book.

"Hey, Lucy? What's the name of the book again?" I asked once we all reunited.

"I think it was called Day-something... oh yeah! Daybreak!" She said.

"Why do we have to search all the rooms? Why not ask someone where the book is?" complained Natsu.

"That'll defeat the purpose, dude," I noted. "Why do you think we snuck in? This is a reconnaissance mission. Think of us like being ninjas."

"N-ninjas, you say?" said Natsu.

"Aye! Ninjas!" added Happy.

"Ugh, again, you guys are focusing on the specific details," sighed Lucy.

"Yeah! Ninjas! We'll be ninjas!" yelled Natsu.

"Ninja!" added Happy.

"You guys are being too loud! Someone will hear us!" whispered Lucy.

She was right, in fact, because at that moment, the five ugly maids popped up out of the ground behind me.

"Intruders detected!" they yelled.

"Get em'!" yelled the fat one.

"See?! You guys were being too loud! They found us!" said Lucy.

"RAAHHH!" Happy put on a skull mask that he found and yelled at the maids.

"Oh no! A ghost!" they cried.

"SHUT THE FUCK UP!" Natsu yelled, punching the maids into oblivion.

"Natsu! Look out!" I yelled. The fat maid jumped into the air in attempts to squash Natsu.

"Flying Bourgeois Dog!" bellowed the maid as she fell to the ground. I pushed Natsu out of the way just in time and skillfully rolled to dodge the maid. I Summoned Tyranitar's ball and sent him out.

"Tyranitar! Stone Edge!" I commanded. Tyranitarnodded, and then created many large, sharp stones and flung them at the maid. She became badly scratched and battered by the stones. I ran up to her and finished her off with Flame Kick.

"Awesome! Return, Tyranitar," I returned Tyranitarto his ball.

"We can't afford to be spotted, nin-nin!" said Natsu, who had wrapped his scarf around his face.

"Nin-nin!"

"You guys basically defeated the purpose of being ninjas," I said. "You guys were supposed to be quiet!"

"Hey, you were just as loud!" said Lucy.

"Oh yeah..." I muttered. "Hey, I have an idea. This Everlue dick is super rich, right? Then don't you think he has a library? Wouldn't it make sense if the book was being kept in there?"

"Huh, I guess that makes sense," said Lucy.

We walked around, looking into more rooms until we came to a large pair of doors which when we opened them, to our surprise, was a humongous library that was so tall, we would have to stack ourselves five times or even more to get to the ceiling.

"It's a mountain of books-de gozaru!" said Natsustill acting like a ninja. I guess he took it too literally.

"Aye-de gozaru!" added Happy.

"The old geezer's quite the reader, eh?" I said. "Guess there's more to some people than meets the eye."

"Yes indeed! Nin-nin!" said Natsu.

"Aye! Nin-nin!" added Happy.

"Seriously, Natsu? I was kidding about the ninja thing. You can take the scarf off," I said.

"Man, I was just joking," he said.

"Aye," added Happy again.

"This is a job. We can't be kidding around."

"Well then, let's start searching!" Natsu yelled, excitedly.

"Aye sir!" yelled Happy.

"I didn't mean yell..." I said.

We all split up and looked for the book. But holy shit, it seemed like it was gonna take forever. I searched on the bottom like Natsu and Happy but on the other side. Lucy searched up above using a ladder.

"We have to find one single book in all of this? This is gonna take forever!" said Lucy.

"Tell me about it," I added.

"Haha! I found the perv's porn stash!" laughed Natsu.

"I found an encyclopedia on fish! Yummy..." said Happy.

"Get serious, you guys!" called Lucy.

After a few seconds though, "Hey! I found a golden book!"

"I told you guys to stop goofing around!" said Lucy. "Wait... 'Daybreak'?!"

"WOAH! You found it, Natsu!" I yelled.

"Wow! An easy 2,000,000 Jewel!" said Lucy.

"Let's destroy it right now! Vinny, would you like to do the honors?" offered Natsu.

"Gladly."

"Wait! This book was written by Kemu Zaleon!" said Lucy, snatching the book from my hands.

"Zaleon?" questioned Natsu.

"Hey, I was gonna destroy that," I said.

"No way! This book was written by Kemu Zaleon, who was a wizard, but also a famous novelist! I'm a huge fan of his works! I thought I read all of the books he wrote, but perhaps this is one of his unpublished works?"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. Gimme the book so that I can destroy it," I said.

"What?! No! This is an important cultural heritage! No way are we burning it!"

"But you're abandoning the mission," said Happy.

"So what! I said I'm a huge fan!"

"Well think about it! If it was never published, then maybe it sucks! So give it here!" I said.

"How about we say that we burned it and then I'll keep it? Vinny, why don't you be a pal and 'Store' the book or whatever it was called..."

"First of all, you were the one who said that the only thing you can't break is a promise, so you'd be lying to Melon's face, two, it's called 'Destroying', stupid, and third, I'm not gonna let you use me as storage!"

"Yeah, you'd just end up actually destroying it, anyway."

"Just give me the book!" I yelled.

"Aha! I see!" said a voice. Suddenly, Everluepopped out of the ground from behind me. "So it was the book 'Daybreak' you intruders were after! Boyoyoyo!"

"See, Lucy? This is what you get for hesitating!" I said.

"I'm sorry!" she apologized.

"Hah! I knew you wizards were searching for something, but I never knew that it would be that stupid book!"

"Stupid? Why do you think it's stupid?" I asked.

"So wait, if you think it's so stupid, then can I have it?" asked Lucy politely.

"No! What's mine is mine!" yelled Everlue.

"Miser," muttered Lucy.

"Shut up, ugly," retorted Everlue. Lucy dropped her head.

"Why don't we just burn the book?" said Natsu.

"No way! I won't let you!" cried Lucy.

"LUCY! This is our job!" I yelled.

"Well, at least let me read it."

"Right now?!" yelled the rest of us.

"Enough! Do you even know who I am?! Get your filthy hands off my book this instant!" yelled Everlue. "Vanish Brothers!"

Two of the shelves opened up and two very tall wizards were on the other end.

"Good afternoon!" said the one on the right with tattoos on his face.

"Even Mother would be surprised to see that these three brats are Fairy Tail wizards!" said the taller one on the left. He was wearing some kind of band with an emblem on it.

"That mark! Those guys are from the South Wolves mercenary guild!" said Happy.

"So Everlue hired these idiots?" said Natsu.

"You'd think that they had better things to do other than be this fat ass's bodyguards," I added.

"Boyoyoyoyo! Wolves are always hungry, correct? Prepare yourselves!" said Everlue.

"Natsu! Vinny! Buy me some time. I think there's some kind of secret to this book," said Lucy as she ran out the door.

"Secret? What secret?" questioned Everlue.

"You're asking the wrong guys, fatty," I muttered.

"Whatever. I'm going after the girl! Get them!" Everlue commanded the brothers as he dug into the ground.

"I'm going after Lucy!" I said to Natsu.

"Happy! Go with Vinny!" said Natsu.

"I'll stay here to back you up!" said Happy.

"No. I can take care of these assholes on my own. Go with Vinny!"

"Happy! Fly me down this hole!" I said to Happy, pointing to the hole Everlue had made. I ran up to the tattooed guy who was holding a large frying pan-type weapon and Destroyed it, leaving him with nothing. He tried to grab it back, but Happy grabbed onto me and pulled me back.

With one last look at Natsu, Happy dived down into the hole with me in his arms.


	31. Chapter 31: The Book

Happy and I rushed down the hole, wind blowing in our faces, barely able to keep our eyes open. That was a bit of a problem, because I needed to see where I was going.

"Slow down a bit, Happy!" I yelled.

"Aye sir!" Happy slowed just enough for me to open my eyes, and it was just in time, too. I opened my eyes and we were at the bottom.

"STOP! Woah!" I yelled before we almost crashed into the ground. My heart was pounding a thousand miles per hour and I swear that I could feel it coming out of my chest.

"Whew. That was close," I sighed.

"Aye."

Where are we? I thought. I lit a Flame Ball as a light source. After turning around 180°, I saw another hole that Everlue must've made, but it was too small to stand up in. If I crawled there, that could take forever. I looked into the hole. I saw complete darkness. Not a trace of light. How would we get through? I wasn't strong enough to punch through all of the rock. My arm would probably get tired within a few minutes. What can break through the rock? I thought. Suddenly, I knew a way.

"Go! Tyranitar!" I Summoned Tyranitar's ball and sent him out. "Alright Tyranitar, Mega Evolve!" I Summoned my Mega Stone and Tyranitar's Tyranitarite began to glow. Tyranitar began to change shape and finally, Mega Tyranitar appeared before me. "Okay Tyranitar, let's smash through this rock wall!" Tyranitar grunted, and then charged up a punch. When the dust settled, I lowered my arms from my face and there was a massive tunnel where Tyranitar punched the wall in. We all ran down into the tunnel until we reached the next wall.

Suddenly, I heard some bad sounds: one was a faint explosion, that couldn't be good. Dammit, Natsu! I thought angrily. The other noise was a very faint, "Boyoyoyoyo!" which got me so enraged, I was ready to punch that fat bastard's face in.

"Tyranitar! Punch the wall again!" Tyranitar nodded, and did just that. A loud cracking and crumbling sound resounded throughout the tunnel and it had gotten larger. At the tunnel's end, there was a metal wall and Everlue's ass sticking out of it.

"Tell me the secret of the book! What did you find?" said Everlue's ugly voice.

"You're the lowest of the low! You're an enemy of literature!" said Lucy's voice.

"An enemy of literature? A sophisticated, cultured individual such as me, myself and I?"

"Anyone who's happy to have a collection of those ugly maids isn't cultured!"

"There's nothing to mock of my beautiful blonde maids!" Beautiful, you say, you fat fuck?! I thought angrily. I withdrew Tyranitar and punched the wall with my metal arm.

"GAAHHH!" Everlue screamed as he was punched out of the wall. I punched my way into what seemed like an underground sewage system.

"What?! Vinny? Happy? Where's Natsu? What happened to those mercenary guys?"

"Natsu is fighting those guys," said Happy.

"Ugh, I have a feeling that he followed through with Plan T. He's gonna hear it from me," I groaned.

"Jeez, make up your mind. First you said 'That's a bit excessive', then you say, 'Hah! Good one-"

"Shh! Do you hear that?" I interrupted because, 1. No one likes to be proven wrong, and 2. I had a feeling that Everlue wasn't finished off just yet.

"Hear what?" questioned Happy.

Suddenly, the ground cracked and up came, guess who?

"Boyoyoyo! Did you really think I could be defeat-" I punched towards Everlue's ugly face but he dodged just in time by escaping underground.

"COME OUT AND FIGHT ME, PUSSY! Lucy, stay back! He could be anywhere! Oh, wait! I know! Come on out, Mewtwo!" I Summoned Mewtwo's ball and sent him out.

"Mewtwo, use Psychic to find Everlue and remove him from the holes!" Mewtwo nodded, and then used his psychic power to seek out Everlue. Unfortunately, Everlue popped up behind Mewtwo and struck him down.

"So you decided to use your pet to sniff me out, eh? Boyoyoyoyo! It won't work!" Everlue drilled into the ground again.

"Mewtwo, are you alright?" He nodded. "Try again with Psychic! I have an idea!" Mewtwo used Psychic to track down Everlue again, but he was too fast.

"Mewtwo! Dodge Everlue's attack!" Sure enough, Everlue came up from the ground and tried to grab Mewtwo again.

I emitted a Flame Ball and waved my arms around in a circle, lighting more Flame Balls as I spun my arms around faster and faster.

"Flare Wheel." I released the two flaming wheels from my arms, in which they ran along the ground at high speed and hit Everlue before he had a chance to attack.

"Ooft!" He fell to the ground, on fire. "AAAUUGGHH!" Everlue ran around like crazy until the thought crossed his mind that he should jump into the sewer water.

"Just as I hoped. Mewtwo! Return!" I withdrew Mewtwo while Summoning Gyarados' Ball and my Mega Stone. "Go! Gyarados!" Gyarados emerged from the ray of light. "Mega Evolve! Mega Gyarados!" A ball engulfed Gyarados as he Mega Evolved into Mega Gyarados.

"Gyarados! Finish him off with a Dragon Pulse!" At that moment, a ball of energy formed in Gyarados' gaping mouth and a large beam of dragon energy shot out from the ball, but Everlue was too fast, still.

"Alright then, use Surf! Then Hydro Pump!" Gyarados created a large wave of water which hit Everlue and immediately after, a blast of water was shot at him, slamming him up against the wall. I returned Gyarados and ran up to Everlue who was struggling to get up.

"I've been wanting to do this! Flame Kick!" My foot ignited and I rushed at Everlue at great speed, kicking him in the stomach and sending him flying. In the process, somehow the water on him evaporated and he caught on fire again. Unfortunately, he had enough sense to shed his flame-engulfed clothes, as he presumably didn't want to jump in the water again which left the fat turd in his underwear, his flab hanging out for all the world to see. I'm pretty sure that if he looked at himself in the mirror, the mirror would not just shatter, but actually explode.

"Ahem, you can just throw your clothes in the water, thank you very much. Oomph- *thwapth*" I started, and then puked.

"That's gross, Vinny!" said Lucy.

"No, that's gross!" I retorted, pointing at Ever-nude.

"Argh, fine! If that's how you want it, that's how you'll get it!" yelled Everlue angrily.

"*Thwapth* Ah, no thank you. I'm not into men. Especially not men like you," I barfed.

"No! Not like that! I mean, taste the pain of you own medicine!" yelled Everlue. He took out a key. "Open! Gate of the Maiden! Virgo!" At that moment, a bright light shone and, guess who? The fat ugly maid from before. But wait- there was someone on her! A certain someone with, pink hair.

"Natsu?!" cried me, Lucy and Happy at the same time. "Why are you on Virgo? How are you on Virgo?" said Lucy.

"I don't know! I saw her beginning to move again, so I grabbed onto her, but then suddenly, I ended up here," answered Natsu.

"Wait, but that means that you would have to pass through the spirit gate in order to get here! That's physically impossible for a human!" exclaimed Lucy.

"Who cares?" I said. "The important thing is that Natsu's here, and so is that fat gorilla maid, so we gotta kick her and Everlue's asses!"

"Alright! You said it Vinny! I'm all fired up-"

"I'M GONNA DEAL WITH YOU LATER, NATSU," I said in my menacing demon voice. He jumped when he heard me like that.

"What did I do wrong?" he questioned.

"You destroyed the mansion up above, presumably. Correct?" Natsu nodded slowly.

"I didn't think you were serious about trashing the place. But you did it anyway."

"Er, force of habit-"

"WELL, BREAK THE GODDAMN HABIT THEN!" I yelled. "Next time this happens, I'm gonna kick your ass. I don't care that you're my guildmate, either. For now, let's kick their asses. Natsu! Let's use a combo fire attack!" He nodded and we faced Virgo.

"Fire Dragon..."

"Flare..."

"ROAR/BURST!" Simultaneously, Natsu and I unleashed two spiraling attacks that soon combined into one large beam of fire that hit Virgo right in the chest, sending her flying back into a wall, and also struck Everlue and also singed his hair off. However, the force of Virgo hitting the wall with such immense force caused the other walls to start crumbling and breaking in.

"Shit! Oh god, uh, we need to get out of here, and fast! Uh, okay, quick! Back through the hole that Tyranitar made!" I shouted. We ran back through the big hole and back to where the hole lead up to the library. The walls sere crumbling behind us, so we had to act fast.

"Happy! Fly Natsu back up to the library! Come out, Fearow! Lucy, take my hand." I called out Fearow and grabbed Lucy's hand. "Alright, now hold on tight, Lucy! Fly us up, Fearow!" Immediately, Fearow spread his broad wings and shot up. In less than a few minutes, we reached the library, or rather, the ruins of it. Natsu directed us to fly back to Melon's house.

"Lucy! Where's the book Daybreak? Don't tell me you have it!" I shouted as we flew through the sky. She looked away for a second, and then slowly pulled the book up, guiltily. "Dammit, Lucy! Now we're never gonna get that 50,000 Jewel! Why did you keep it?"

"Y-you'll see!" she shouted back.

xxxx

"What? I thought I requested this book to be destroyed! I never wanted to see this book ever again!" said Melon.

"Destroying it is easy. You should be able to do it yourself," said Lucy.

"Then I will wait no longer! I cannot allow this book to exist!"

"I know why you want this book to be destroyed. It's to protect your father's honor. You're Kemu Zaleon's son." I gasped. How could she figure that out? Smart girl, I thought.

"How did you know?" said Melon, astounded.

"Well, have you read the book yourself?"

"No. I could never bring myself to do it. It's trash. Even my father said so."

"What?!" yelled Natsu. He grabbed Melon by the collar. "So you were just going to have the book burned just because you think it's a sucky book? That's taking it too far man! Your father wrote that book!"

"Natsu! You're the one who's taking it too far! Didn't you hear Lucy? It was to protect his father's honor! Calm the hell down!" I yelled.

"That's correct." Melon sighed. "I was ashamed that my father wrote Daybreak. 31 years ago... my father came home tired and crippled. He walked in the door and I wasn't even expecting him. I said, 'Where were you writing for three years? You had us all worried sick!' He tied a rope around his arm, and grabbed a cleaver. He shouted, 'I quit being an author. I'm never writing another book again!' And then he swung the cleaver at his arm." Natsu, Happy, and Lucy all gasped and looked horrified at this. I was the only one unfazed by this.

Melon continued. "My father ended up in the hospital after that. I went to go visit him, but I was so angry at him. 'How could you?' I shouted. 'I told you three years ago, the commission wasn't worth it!' He lay there, smiling. 'I'm so glad I finished that piece of rubbish.' he said, weakly. 'Why the hell are you smiling?' I yelled. 'Because of that stupid garbage, you neglected your family for three years!' He responded and said, 'Kaby, I was thinking about you the whole time.' I said angrily, 'Then why didn't you write something decent and come straight home? You abandoned your pride as an author and your family! You were right about quitting as an author. Someone like you with no pride isn't fit to be one. Or even a father.' Shortly after that, he died. I hated him ever since. But as the years went by, that hatred slowly turned into remorse. And yet, my father isn't alive in this world for me to apologize to. I figured the least I could do was destroy his last remaining work to protect my father's good name. My father would agree." He lit a match.

"No he wouldn't," said Lucy, bravely. Suddenly, Daybreak began to glow. "It's begun! Kemu Zaleon! His real name was Zekua Melon! He cast a spell on this book!" As she spoke, the letters on the cover began to rearrange.

"With m-magic?" The letters on the cover rearranged to form the words, "Dear Kaby" Melon silently mouthed those words. At that moment, every word removed itself from the book and rearranged themselves. The whole room was filled with strings and strings of letters, anagramming, then placing themselves back into the book.

"He cast a spell on the whole book, so that if someone read it normally, they wouldn't be able to understand it! Zekua Melon gave up being an author not because he wrote his worst book ever, but most likely because he had written his best! It's a letter to his son!" At last, the book stopped glowing, and the letters stopped flying everywhere. The book settled down in Melon's hands.

"Thank you father. I cannot allow this book to be burned," he cried softly.

"Well I guess that's that! We won't be needing that reward!" said Natsu.

"Huh? Yes we do!" said Lucy.

"C'mon. Let's go back to Fairy Tail. We didn't complete the job. So we don't need that reward." Suddenly, Kaby looked up.

"Wait! You are from Fairy Tail, correct?"

"Yes," said all four of us at once.

"You there! With the pink hair! You are a fire wizard, correct? Are you the son of the Great Charizard?"

"The Great What?"

"The Great Charizard! The elite dragon of the Charizard Legion. You must be his son, correct?"

"Uh, sir..." I began.

"I was raised by a dragon, but no Char- Whatever."

"Natsu! How dare you speak about my father like that!" I yelled. "He was my father. Natsu was raised by a dragon named Igneel. My father's name was Jerry, oddly." Kaby nodded.

"Come on, Lucy! Happy! Vinny! Let's go!"

"Give me a minute! You guys go on ahead. I'll catch up later," I called. I turned to Kaby, who was gone.

"Okay then... Why does Kaby know about my father?" I asked Kaby's wife, presumably.

"Are you serious? Who doesn't know the name of The Descendant? Everyone knows The Great Charizard. Kaby knows him because, well, he's in your father's debt. When Kaby heard about his execution, he couldn't take the pressure and he nearly committed suicide." Kaby entered the room again, but with a large brown book, slightly bigger than Daybreak.

"Your father left this in my possession before he was executed. I had nothing to do with it, because I couldn't read it. If you can read it, then that means you are the True Descendant. Other Charizard in the Legion couldn't read this sacred book, and that's why your father was so powerful. I only wish I could've repayed him before he died. Think of this book as just that. Oh, I insist, please take the 2,000,000 Jewel. Please. I want to repay your team for helping me so much. It's only fair."

"I guess, but the book. How can you not read it?" I asked, confused.

"It's in a different language, an ancient language that no one else can understand. This book was used by The True Charizard from many centuries ago, when the Legion was first formed."

I opened up the book. There was a little note inside that said, "Kaby. I believe that my son is the True Descendant. Please give this book to him, in remembrance of me. -Jerry" I opened up to the first page while trying to hold back tears. The heading read, "Book of Magic" with the sub heading reading, "Physical arts" and a bunch of other small text under it. The page on the right was just magic spells and how to cast them. I turned the book to Kaby.

"You're serious? You can't read that at all? Read that heading." He looked at the page and said, "I can't. I don't know what it says."

"You're not playing me? You're dead serious?"

"Yes."

"Come on! That's three words! "Book", "of", and "Magic"! How? Alright, how about this: what does that look like to you?" I pointed at the word "Physical". No joke, he started tracing invisible lines and curves on the page that weren't actually there. "Honestly, it's too complicated to read. It's just a bunch of lines and squares and curves," he said. I was enormously confused.

"Well, thank you so much. I appreciate it," I thanked.

"My pleasure. Thank your blonde haired friend for me, okay?"

"I will. Bye!" I dashed out the door and went after Lucy and Natsu.

xxxx

"Hey, Natsu, I want you to do me a favor," I said. We were seated around a fire that Natsu had built and was roasting fish around.

"What is it?" said Natsu with his mouth full of fish.

"Read this." I pointed to the heading, "Book of Magic".

"What?! I have no idea what that says!"

"Are you serious right now? It says 'Book of Magic'! Do you not know how to read?"

"Well excuse me for not knowing how to read... Whatever that is. What language is that?"

"English, duh."

"Are you okay, Vinny? Do you see squares and lines and curves and other rectangles too?"

"No, all I see is, 'Book of Magic. Physical arts. How to use this book: when you fight monsters, you will unlock more spells to use. The rest of the pages are blank to anyone else who tries to use it.'" I read a little bit of the "How to use" section.

"Woah. You can read all that? That's incredible!" exclaimed Natsu.

"So you're saying that you don't see English in the book, but a different language instead? That's wacky," I said.

I stayed up to read the book a bit more. It turned out that some of the pages were already filled up with complicated Magic spells that my father had used before me. Some of the spells were less costly of Magic Power, and less powerful, whereas the more complicated, stronger spells were more costly. I've played enough games to think, that's some pretty heavy RPG shit right there.

"I can't believe you outright rejected 2,000,000 Jewel, Natsu! That was an opportunity of a lifetime right there! Now I'm never going to pay my rent!" complained Lucy.

"Hey Lucy," I said.

"What now?" she retorted.

"Here." I handed her half the money I got from Kaby.

"Huh?! Wha-"

"It's a million Jewel. Take it or leave it. Kaby said thank you for him."

"How did you...? Thank you..." she accepted the money from me.

"Kaby greatly insisted that I took the money. I know they probably needed it more than we did, but I didn't wanna hurt his feelings after what happened."

"Really, Vinny? Why?" said Natsu.

"I told you! I didn't want to hurt his feelings!"

"Do you think you split 500,000 with me, perhaps?"

"No way! You were the one who outright rejected the money, Natsu! Money, get back, I'm all right, Jack, keep your hands off of my stack..." I belted out in song.

"Really, Vinny?" said Natsu. Happy laughed.

xxxx

"'Are you sure this is the way we're supposed to be going?', she says," said Horologium. It seemed like we were lost in the middle of nowhere. We were walking through some kind of swamp in the forest, or rather, a forest somewhere. "'I think Vinny had a map. Why don't you help us all out and check your map, Vinny?', says milady."

"Yeah, and why don't you walk by yourself? If you're so tired of walking, why do you even come along on these missions? Lazy ass," I retorted.

"'Don't talk about my ass!', she yells."

"I was talking about you, not your Gluteus Maximus. Speaking of a map..." I quickly Summoned my big map.

"Okay... so... Shirotsume... *mumblemumble*... forest area, yadda yadda yadda... ah! Magnolia is to the..." I looked up. I looked back down at the map. "Southeast- I mean, southwest. Damn, uh, sorry. I always get those terms mixed up..." I trailed off. "We gotta go that way!" I pointed southwest.

Beep-beep beep-beep! A digital clock sound went off and Horologium disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

"Ah, Lucy. So I see you've decided to join us! How nice. Get up. We need to walk another four and a half miles to Magnolia," I said.

"Don't patronize me..." grumbled Lucy as she got up slowly and started walking. Happy landed on Natsu's shoulder to take a break from flying.

Suddenly, something moved in the bushes. Natsu suddenly got into a battle stance and dove into the bushes to fight whatever was coming.

"Is he looking for a fight?", said Lucy.

"Judging on the kind of guy he is, the answer is yes. He is that crazy," I said.

"Get 'em, Natsu!"shouted Happy. Suddenly, Natsu jumped out of the bushes with the creature. Only it wasn't a creature, it was Gray, the naked weirdo from Fairy Tail.

"Gray!" shouted Natsu.

"Natsu!" shouted Gray.

"Why is he naked?" questioned Lucy. Which was true, because he was, in fact, in his black boxers.

"Yeah, why are you in your underwear in the middle of the forest?" repeated Natsu.

"I was looking for a bathroom!" he retorted.

"Why were you looking for a bathroom in your underwear? Do you have to do everything naked?" I said.

"How were you expecting to find a bathroom in the middle of the forest, idiot?" said Natsu.

"Who're you calling an idiot, flame butt?" insulted Gray.

"Walking ice tray!"

"Matchstick!" Gray and Natsu went at it for a whole minute.

"They're acting like a bunch of little kids," said Lucy.

"I got this," I said. I jumped up and brought my fist down in between them. "Hammer Arm!" The ground around us shook and many cracks appeared. Earth from below rose up around us and a shock wave was sent in all directions, knocking Natsu and Gray back. Angrily, they dashed at me with incredible speed. I quickly did a handstand and curled in my legs. "Flame Kick!" I extended my legs and kicked Gray and Natsu in the chin. Natsu ate the flames from my feet and made a comment about how grimy it tasted and tried Fire Dragon Roar on me. Gray on the other hand, who couldn't swallow flames, was smacked down to the ground. I stood there and absorbed the attack. I couldn't eat the fire either, but it had no effect on me, it just knocked me back a few feet. Enraged, Natsu jumped towards me and used Fire Dragon Iron Fist, and I jumped to counter it with Titanium Fist. Our fists collided, and we were both thrown back. Natsu hit a tree, and I nearly fell off a cliff.

"Huff, huff... Are we done here?" said Natsu.

"I was the one who was trying to stop you guys in the first place, you god damn fire breathing son of a bitch! Goddammit, can you two ever stop fighting?! Jeez!" I exhaled heavily. "Is that all you think about? Do you really have to get into a fight with him every time you see him?" I yelled.

"Heh. You're tough, Vinny. Now I wanna fight you! When we get back to the guild, let's fight!" said Natsu.

"Man, you really are naive. You never learn, do you?" I said. "You know what? Screw it. I accept your challenge. But we fight tomorrow at noon. I have shit I need to take care of."

"Man, I'm all fired up!" shouted Natsu. What a child, I thought.

"Gray, why were you really in the woods?" I asked. "Don't give me any of that 'bathroom' crap. Also, put some clothes on."

"Well, the part about the bathroom was true," said Gray, frantically pulling on a shirt and some pants out of nowhere. "I just got done with a job request."

"Ah, you were coming back from a job. Why didn't you say so?"

"Well, I was going to! But stupid Firebutt over there had to attack me before I had a chance to explain myself!" protested Gray.

"Who're you calling Firebutt-" started Natsu angrily.

"Shut it, pyro," I interrupted.

"Whatever, Vinny. Just get back to the guild, Gray," said Natsu.

"Of course. I was going to be getting back anyway, because," Gray paused and shivered for a second. "Erza's coming back to Fairy Tail."

Natsu and Happy's jaws dropped. Lucy gasped. I tilted my head.

"Er- who?" I asked.

"I wouldn't blame you for not knowing," said Gray. "While not the strongest Mage, Erza is the strongest woman in all of Fairy Tail."

My eyebrows raised. "So she's pretty good, huh?"

"What?! 'Pretty good'?! She's what's known as an S-class Mage."

"S-class...?" My eyes widened at that. "Is Natsu an S-class Mage?"

"Hah! No, and neither am I, but as much as I hate to admit it, Natsu is one of the strongest non-S-class Mages in Fairy Tail. He's on the brink of being one, but he's just too childish."

"You're telling me? Natsu, say nothing, or I'll smash your head in!"

"Heheh, it's funny. You remind me of Erza," chuckled Gray.

"Speaking of, what is she like?" asked Lucy.

Natsu, Gray, and Happy all looked like they didn't want to say.

"Scary," they all said at once.

"Wild animal?" said Natsu.

"A beast," added Gray.

"That's an understatement. More like a demon!" said Happy.

"Woah! Is she big?"

"Yeah! She's bigger than all of Magnolia!" said Natsu.

"I wouldn't go that far," said Gray.

"Yeah, but that's just about how scary she is," said Natsu.

"She could crack a mountain into three pieces with one kick!" said Happy.

"Naw, three is exaggerating. It's more like two," said Gray.

"Still, knocking down a mountain in a single kick, is still pretty scary," said Lucy.

"Whatever, guys. I guess we have to wait and see. Let's head back to the guild now. It's um, southeast, argh! No, I mean, southwest! Dammit!" I laughed. "Again! I messed it up. Well, just follow me. I have a map-"

Suddenly, a blast of sand exploded out of nowhere. When the dust settled, we were all half buried in sand.

But Happy was gone.

"Happy!" yelled Natsu, with sand flowing out of his mouth.

"Ugh... just as soon as we were about to go back. Why are we being constantly stopped by everything?" I said, spitting out some sand.

"They took Happy!" cried Lucy.

"Well, what good are we doing just standing around, being useless? Let's go after Happy!" I said. I heard voices talking nearby.

"... I'm not shaking because I'm scared, I really have to pee. If you eat me, I'm sure I'll taste weird," said Happy's voice. Oh, so they're gonna eat Happy? Not on my watch, I thought. I jumped up on a high rock.

"Hey, you idiots! That's our friend you're about to flambé! I don't care if you're hungry, but if you're thinking about eating Happy..." I lit up my metal fist. "Then I'll punch your heads in!"

"Get 'em!" yelled the short gray guy. All of his team members spread out quickly. Natsu and Gray took on the two guys with the Sai while I took on the big chicken dude. He wielded a staff that could ignite, not that it would do anything to me.

"Your staff is useless against me!" I said, missing a swift Flame Kick. "Oh, you like to dodge?" I Mega Evolved, and charged a Flame Ball bigger than normal over my head.

"Dodge this, bitch." I threw the Giga Flame Ball down at the chicken guy, who lay there singed and unconscious.

"Sand Bomb!" The stumpy gray guy used a sand attack which created a huge ball of sand. Natsu, unfortunately, was too slow to dodge, and got caught inside.

"Natsu! Don't worry! I'll get you outta there!" I yelled. I Summoned my Book of Magic and flipped through a few pages.

"Let's see, Shadow, Water, Earth, ah! Wind Magic! Uh, let's see... oh, okay! Wind Magic: Wind Blow!" I read what I thought would be a useful spell to get Natsu out of the Sand Bomb. Suddenly, my lungs filled up with an immense amount of air, and my cheeks puffed up. And then, when I couldn't contain it any longer, an extreme air blast stronger than a jet turbine blasted out from my mouth and blew every single bit of sand away from around Natsu. From behind me, Gray had taken out the weird one who wouldn't fight back and Lucy untied Happy from the spit. Natsu was out of breath from being trapped in the Sand Bomb.

"I've got him, Natsu. Step back." I flipped to the 'Shadow Magic' page. "Shadow Magic: Shadow Switch!" I sunk into the ground and I was instantly teleported to the guy's shadow. I came up and used Flame Punch, but he was a bit too quick, so he was able to block it with a Sand Wall. I looked around, and saw that he trapped me inside some kind of sand prison. I looked up. There was an opening, but it was too high.

"Fine. You wanna play cheap? I'll show you." I jumped into the air and aimed my metal fist downwards. "Hammer Fist!" Just as I hoped, the sand around me collapsed (And got into my shoes). The sand guy looked over and was about to mutter, "Impossible!" but he didn't really finish. I dashed at him and used Flame Punch, sending him flying. Natsu rounded up all of the weird guys, who were now unconscious, and he tied them tightly to a tree.

"Humph. You don't have to get serious with these small frys," scoffed Gray.

"Yeah, well how about I fry that mouth of yours?" retorted Natsu. And yet again, the two began arguing loudly. I was about to go punch them, but then, the short gray guy muttered something.

"Lu...by..." he muttered.

"What? I couldn't hear him- oh for crying out loud..." I rushed over to Gray and Natsu and punched them both in the head. They were obviously pretty pissed because of it, but then I pointed to the short dude.

"T-the... Lulla... by..." muttered the short guy.

"What? What's he talking about?" said Natsu.

"I don't know, but I don't like the sound of it," said Lucy.

Suddenly, a giant shadow in the shape of a hand covered the area. It loomed over the tree were the guys were tied up and appeared to grab it. Then it pulled the tree down into the ground, possibly killing those idiots. But a shadowy figure could be seen in the trees, fleeing the scene. I assumed that he or she forced the tree into the ground.

"Who is that? Vinny, do you have a speed spell to chase after him?" said Natsu.

I didn't even bother to look. "No. And frankly, I don't care to chase after him either, because the way I see it, he just did us a favor. Now let's get our asses back to the guild."

xxxx

"You can't read it either, huh?" I asked Levy, a girl with blue hair. I had asked her if she could read the Book of Magic just to see again if I really was the only one who could read it. Also because she was a total bookworm, so I thought she could help me.

"No, I can't read it, unfortunately, but this is a very rare and valuable book. It's an ancient language from long ago, created by dragons. I wonder, did Igneel make it?"

"I don't think he did. It was passed down my father. Did you know him? He was a dragon, sort of."

"No, I heard a lot a dragon being in the guild at one point, but I wasn't around to see it. But you're saying that your father was a dragon?"

"Sort of. He was a Charizard."

"Oh! I have heard that name before! I heard of the Great Charizard, but that's about it. He was your father?"

"Yeah, I never got to know him. He was killed, so I'd been living with my mother for ten years."

"That's unfortunate. Well, if you ever need anything, I can help you."

"Thanks Levy." I went to go sit down at the bar where Mirajane was. I thought she was kinda pretty. I guess you could I was sort of attracted to her? She was very nice, as well.

"Hey Mira. How's it going?"

"Well, it's pretty busy, but I don't mind. How was your first job request?"

"Pretty exhilarating, actually. I got 1,000,000 Jewel from it, so I guess that's pretty cool."

"What?! You're joking, right? You can't be serious! S-rank jobs sometimes don't even go up that high! Well actually, that's not true. Never mind. But tell me, how did you do it? Did you take half the money for yourself?"

"Huh? Well, uh, technically, yes, but that's because Natsu and Happy rejected the money. Lucy took half, and so did I. Now she'll have something to pay her rent with."

"Uh, no, you still owe me 70,000 Jewel," said Lucy from behind me. I jumped in surprise.

"What?! You got that money, so why don't you use it to pay your stupid rent?"

"Because. You owe me. You were the one who begged to sleep at my place." Mira laughed.

"But I had no money or a place to begin with! I'm from a whole different land!"

"Whatever. Get your own place from now on. And that doesn't mean I'm letting you off the hook."

"Okay! Fine! Jeez..." Lucy left and I turned back around. "Don't blame me. Yesterday was only my first day in Fairy Tail."

"Haha! Hey, don't worry! I don't blame you! Y'know, she was pretty lucky to get a place, 'cuz people are always fighting to get a place." Suddenly, the guild door opened dramatically. Mira gasped. Everyone fell silent.

"What's wrong? Why is everyone quiet all of a sudden?"

"It's her. She's back."

"But who's back though?"

"Erza. Erza's back."


	32. Chapter 32: The Hunter

Standing in the doorway to the guild, carrying a huge cone thing, was Erza. She dropped it on the ground with a loud thud, which shook the whole guild.

"I've returned," she spoke. Her mighty voice was deep, strong. She wore an iron chest plate and had long red hair with fierce, determined eyes. She was not as large as Natsu described, but she didn't look scary either. But you know, they say "never judge a book by its cover".

"Where is Master?" She said.

"Oh wow! She's pretty!" said Lucy.

"Master is at his usual meeting," said Mira. Erza nodded.

"Erza, what's that thing you were carrying?" asked one of the guildmates.

"It's the horn of the giant monster I defeated. The locals decorated it and gave it to me as a souvenir. Why? You got a problem with it?"

"Uh, no! No problem!" he said nervously.

"All of you!" shouted Erza. The whole guild jumped. "I heard rumors while I was gone, that Fairy Tail keeps causing problems. Master may forgive you, but I will not stand for it! Cana!" Erza shouted at the brunette girl drinking booze out of a huge barrel. "How dare you drink in such an uncivilized manner! Vistar!" She shouted at a guy in spandex pulling off poses and dance moves. "Take your dancing outside! Wakaba!" She yelled towards the orange haired guy who was smoking. "You're dropping ash onto the table. Nab!" She yelled at the guy in front of the request board, who was trying to look occupied. "Hesitating in front of the request board as usual? Pick a job already! Macao!" She shouted at Macao, who jumped up. But she appeared to have nothing to say. She just sighed, as if sorry for Macao.

"J-just say something already, God dammit!" he cried.

"God, you all give me so much trouble. But I'll be lenient and let you all slide without saying anything." Everyone sighed in relief.

"What is she, some kind of disciplinary committee?" asked Lucy.

"That'd be Erza!" responded Happy.

She looked around at the guild. "Just because I'm letting you slide, doesn't mean I'm not disappointed in all of you."

All of a sudden, I realized. By seeing other power, Natsu, Gray, I didn't even see what Erza's magic was, but I heard enough to be at least a little frightened, but by seeing how strong they were, it made me realize:

I was weak.

I had already decided that I was going to earn Erza's respect, but keeping my main mission in mind, I realized that I had to get even stronger. So strong that monsters like the one Erza took down would be a cakewalk. I decided, I was going to be stronger than even Makarov, and take on the most difficult quests until they became so easy, I could do it in my sleep. With my Book of Magic, I believed I could do it. I didn't even think I could defeat Natsu so easily. Mind you, he was tough. I was weak. But that gave me an idea.

"Natsu." I walked over to Natsu, who was pretending to be all buddy-buddy with Gray just because Erza was around. "Y-yeah? What is it?"

"Our fight we're gonna have? Let's postpone it until next week. And believe me, then, I'll be a lot stronger."

"O-okay then, sounds good." He and Gray were both sweating from nervousness, their arms around each other, holding hands in the middle.

"Natsu." I said in a deadly serious voice. "Erza might not always be watching, but I am. And Gray, this goes for you too." I held up my ignited fist. "If you two don't legitimately, genuinely begin to get along and be more friendly towards each other, then you're gonna get a punishment way worse than Erza gives. And I don't even know what her punishment is." Natsu and Gray looked at each other, swallowed a lump in their throats, and said, "You don't want to." They said simultaneously. "I don't care. And I also don't care that fire and ice are not meant to mix. If you two don't become friendly towards each other, I'll beat you both to a pulp at the same time. Don't think I'm weaker than either of you. There's more to this boy that meets the eye. Got it?" They nodded quickly and then they greeted each other like old pals. I turned my back, but I looked in the corner of my eye, where they couldn't see me looking, and believe it or not, they weren't glaring at each other like normal. I sat down at the bar.

"Mira, I want you to do me a favor," I said to Mira. Natsu and Gray were still working out their differences. "When I'm not here, I want you to watch Natsu and Gray. Their hatred towards each other is starting to piss me off."

"Well, join the club. It's been going on for years. No one has ever convinced them to become friends. Erza used to discipline them, but that was about it."

"Oh. I figured they had a history. But anyway, I want you to watch them and tell me if they don't get along. Sorry if I'm putting the extra burden on you, I just want something to change."

"Oh no, don't worry! It's perfectly fine! Y'know, I used to get pretty mad with them as well."

"Haha! I'm pretty sure everyone has at some point. Well anyway, thanks for helping me. Ahem, can I get a glass of water?" She filled a cup with water and passed it to me.

We sat for a bit, chatting. I showed her the Book of Magic and to little surprise, she couldn't read it either. We talked about Fiore and I asked her to educate me a bit about Fiore, Jewel, Magic, and the like. I told her a bit about my Dimension Magic and she told me about her Transformation Magic. It was interesting talking to her, because I learned a few things about her.

"Oh, also, when Master isn't here, you can show me the job requests you want to take on," she noted.

"Cool. Hey, I noticed there's a second floor. What's up there?" I asked, curiously.

"That floor is only for S-class Mages. Only S-class mages can go up there because there are S-class quests up there. Those are pretty dangerous. They include advanced monster hunting quests like the one Erza took on."

"What kind of monster was it?"

"I didn't ask her. People tend to not question her too much."

"Yeah, for a good reason, too." I Summoned my Pokégear and looked at the clock. 7:58 P.M. I walked over to the request board to see if I could get a good job. I was interested in the monster hunting quests that Mira mentioned.

"Let's see... Thieves... Spirits of the ruins... Oh hey! Demon on volcano! 200,000 Jewel! Wow! That's a lot. Jeez. Okay then. Hey Mira, I'll take this one."

"The volcano demon? Wow, so you're gonna take on the monster hunting quest already, huh? Well then, go for it, strong boy! Go get em'!" Mira winked and smiled. I could feel my cheeks burning. "Thanks, Mira," I said. I rushed out the door. I looked at the sky. The sun turned the clouds a light shade of pink and the sky peeking out from behind was a bright orange color.

"It's gonna get late. Hmmm..." I figured I should do what Lucy did and find a house to stay in.

Well, the money I had gotten from my first job was well spent on a decent home on the east side of town. It was pretty close to the guild, actually. The cost was a whopping 400,000 Jewel, but the rent was a crazy low, 20,000 Jewel. Hah! Take that Lucy. The house came with furnishings, a stove, fireplace, sofa, armchairs, table, and sink in the living room/kitchen area, a little bathroom with a bathtub/shower with an _actual_ double curtain, sink and toilet, a closet in the little hallway outside the bathroom, and a bedroom with a bed, obviously, and a window giving me a nice view of Magnolia. It was almost like Lucy's house, but reversed. It was kinda cool to have a house to myself. I was so tired, I didn't even bother to take my shirt or pants off when I entered my bedroom and plopped down on my bed. I didn't fight against my tiredness so I let my eyes close and my mind never remembered how I fell asleep.

The next morning, I lay on top of the bed for a second and then quickly moved to the bathroom where I washed out my mouth and Summoned my toothbrush to brush my teeth. Afterwards, I darted out the door and took a look at the job request again. I looked at my map, and then Summoned Fearow. We flew up high until I could get a good view of Magnolia. I looked down at my map and up again a few more times, and pointed Fearow in the direction the volcano was. Fearow obediently nodded and shot off like a rocket.

After flying for a few hours, a mountain range came into view. A huge demon creature surrounded by a dark gray cloud could be seen perched on top of the volcano. Fearow flew faster and faster, until we reached the side of the volcano. He flew up the side until we reached the summit, where I returned Fearow and ran up to the demon creature. I slid up my sleeves and did a continuous Titanium Fist over and over. It slashed at me with its claw, tearing my jacket and shirt and leaving deep, bloody gashes on my chest.

"Take this!" I Mega Evolved and then charged up my Flame Ball to Giga Flame Ball and fired it at the monster, which dodged the attack. I used Shadow Magic to teleport to the monster's shadow, where I ran up its back and Flame Punched it in the head, doing considerable damage. It turned around angrily, and then punched at me with double the force. It punched me down to the ground, resulting in coughing blood. It charged up another punch, but I rolled out of the way to dodge just in time. I ran behind the monster and grabbed its tail. I lit it on fire just by igniting my arms and with perfect timing, I planted it in the ground with Hammer Fist. The monster screeched in pain and slashed around wildly at me. I tried to dodge, but one of the slashes skimmed me on the cheek. A little bit of blood gushed out, but the scratch wasn't too serious. It was just below my eyes, but after feeling the injury, I had an idea.

"Go! Pikachu!" I sent out Pikachu and commanded him to run around the demon. The demon began slashing away at Pikachu, but Pikachu was too fast, so the demon kept missing. Predictably, it got really dizzy and fell over, where I dashed up to the giant monster and Flame Kicked it one eye, and before it could react, I kicked the other one too. I covered my ears as it covered its red eyes with its hands, blood seeping out between its fingers. I ran up the monster and jumped up high. It began slashing around wildly again which hit nothing, and I shot straight down towards the monster with my steel arm, finishing it off with Hammer Fist, crushing its skull with bits of its mushy brain flying everywhere. Pikachu climbed on my shoulder, cheeks sparking, and cried, "PIIIII- _KA_!" in victory. I patted his head and then he jumped down for me to return him to his ball. The monster's body turned to a pile of dust and then something blue came out of the dust and shot into my chest. I gasped, not expecting it. Was the monster planning to destroy me from the inside? But then, my Book of Magic appeared in my hands and it flipped open to the "Fire Arts" page. New text appeared which said, "Flame Claw". Suddenly, my brain instantly knew how to use Flame Claw. I tried it out, I held my arm out to the side, my flat hand ignited, and then I swung my arm around in a circle. A wave of fire blasted out from the attack and traveled in a straight line.

I looked at the job request paper and looked at the request information in order to know who the employer was. I flew down the volcano on Fearow and we flew to the town near the volcano, or what was left of it. Apparently, the employer was the mayor of the town and the monster had attacked the town out of an unknown rage, so he put out a job request for someone to defeat the monster. That got me thinking, why did it get angry? And how did it even get there? These were all questions I kept in mind just in case I had an epiphany later on. The guy gave me the reward money and I left.

I had other things to worry about at the moment, though. For one, the monster ripped my shirt and jacket, leaving three big rips right in the middle of my chest, not to mention my bleeding chest underneath. _Did I Destroy a first aid kit?_ I thought. I went through my items (while also getting rid of Natsu's barf in a nearby bush), but I didn't find so much as a bandage. I searched through the recovering town, and eventually I found a little house with a doctor who took a look at me. He cleaned up the scratches and wrapped some gauze and a bandage around my chest. He thanked me for my trouble and said my check-up was free of charge. I thanked him and walked outside to Summoned Fearow. It was midday now, the skies were a bit cloudy, but that made it nice and cool.

xxxx

"And then I brought my fist down and crushed his head. After that, he turned to ashes and I sort of absorbed his soul or something, which was kinda creepy, but I learned a new technique, Flame Claw," I told Mira.

"It sounds like you had a rough time, and those tears in your shirt don't look so great. But I'm glad you enjoyed your first solo job," she replied.

"Yeah, well I'm gonna have to replace this shirt and jacket. Hate to see them go. Is there clothes store in Magnolia?"

"Yes, it's on the west side of town. Do you have a spare shirt though?"

"I do, but I need a new jacket."

"You should get a shirt that matches your fedora. I do like that fedora. It's very badass-ish." I was kinda surprised. I had never heard her utter anything even remotely close to a curse word. She didn't seem like the type who would cuss or use foul language. She seemed too polite for that. I'm sure "badass" would count to some people as major, but even though it was minor to me, I still didn't see her as that type who would cuss.

"Thanks, Mira. You're a very sweet girl." I paused for a second. I realized that maybe "nice" would've been just fine, because Mira looked down for a moment and blushed. _Uh-oh. I know that was a compliment, but I should've just stuck with 'nice'! Damn!_ I mentally cursed.

"Thank you..." she managed to say. I did kinda expect her to say thank you, but I didn't know what she was thinking. Also, if she had a boyfriend, then I would've looked like a complete idiot.

"Err, uh, sorry, um, I-I understand, like, um, if-if you're dating someone, then, um, uh, yeah," I stuttered.

"Um, well, no, actually. I understand, like, if you like me. Believe me, a lot of guys in this guild hit on me all the time. It gets kind of annying after a while, you know? But no, you're wrong about that, I'm not dating anyone. I, um, don't really know, you, all that well, but if you want, we can get to know each other better," she said with a shy smile.

"Oh, well, that sounds nice. I don't want to sound like one of those guys who constantly hit on you, but I do actually like you. I..." I couldn't think of anything else to say, which seemed pretty lame of me. I had to think quickly. "I know I must seem really lame right now because I can't think of anything clever to say, but I just wanted to get to the point, you know?"

"Yeah. I understand what you mean, fully. Those guys who always try to impress their crush by saying something clever, I don't want that. I like a straightforward guy."

"Tell you what. On days you're free, how 'bout we hang out? We can take a walk somewhere, maybe get something to eat. Sound good?" I said. She nodded in agreement. I smiled. I was relieved to get my feelings out for once. She smiled. I assumed she was thinking the same thing. We looked at each other and giggled nervously. "Oh! I almost forgot!" I looked around for Lucy. She was sitting at a table, talking to Erza and Natsu. I got up and walked over to her.

"Hey Lucy."

"Huh? Oh, you're back! How was the job request?"

"Fun. But anyway, I owe you..." I Summoned 70,000 Jewel. "Jewel. Here." Erza was kind of surprised by my magic. Lucy took the money from me.

"Well, you're officially off the hook, I guess," said Lucy.

"Thanks. Oh, uh, I forgot to formally introduce myself, Erza, sorry. I'm Vinny."

"Pleased to make your acquaintance." She gripped my hand and shook it firmly. I shook as well. I tried to be as brave as possible, because I didn't want to mess up in front of Erza.

"I saw you used a form of Caster Magic. What was that?" asked Erza.

"Oh, my Dimension Magic? Yeah. I can Summon anything at will, but only if I Destroyed it first. Take for instance," I walked over to another table. "See this table? Using my Dimension Magic," I successfully Destroyed the table. "I can Destroy anything, well anything moderately sized, that is. It's not entirely strong yet. But the table isn't gone forever. You see, according to the Law of Conservation of Mass, I didn't fully destroy the table's particles and molecules. Therefore, when I Summon the table," I did as such, "I can Summon the table again, and it's just as it was before." Erza nodded.

"So that's how it works!" said Natsu.

"I also have a Book of Magic, which lets me use other kinds of magic other than my Dimension Magic, though it's very limited as of now."

"Oh, other kinds of magic? Then that means you are a Multi-Caster!" said Erza.

"I'm what?"

"A Multi-Caster. Caster Magic is Magic that is expelled from the body as opposed to User Magic, in which the user wields a weapon of some sort. Lucy and I would be Holders. I use Requip Magic, where I can change my armor and use different types of weapons. Lucy is a Celestial Mage, where she uses keys to summon different monsters to help aid her. Natsu would be a Caster, as he can use Fire Dragon Slayer Magic. You are a Multi-Caster, meaning you can use more than one type of Caster Magic. They are extremely rare to find, there's maybe, not including you, 4 left."

"Wait, what do you mean, 'maybe 4 left?'"

"... Sit down." I quickly did so. She had a dark look in her eyes.

"The Magic Council doesn't approve of Multi-Casters, well, they never did, as they believe Multi-Casters are dangerous and overpowered. One day way back when, they suddenly rebelled all at once against the Multi-Casters and they sent out mercenaries to hunt down and kill every last one of the Multi-Casters. This went on for many years, with every year passing, at least just one Multi-Caster murdered every year. They're still on the hunt, however. Master told me that they checked Fairy Tail long ago, so I doubt they'll be back."

"Oh don't worry. If they ever _do_ come back, by God, I'll be ready," I said, smashing my fist into my other hand. "Speaking of, I gotta go find a new job." I walked over to the request board and chose another monster hunting quest. "Seek and find the mad trouble making morphing monster! 50,000 Jewel. That's some nice alliteration right there. Hey Mira, I'll be taking this one."

"Alright. Go for it! I'm rooting for you! I believe in you!" I nodded and then turned around and smiled big.

"Ooooooohhh... you got yourself a girlfriend, Vinny? You're IN LOVVVEE~" teased Happy.

"Oh yeah, _real_ embarrassing, I'm in _love_. So what if I am? Who do you have?" That shut him up. He obviously didn't prepare for this kind of scenario, so it was really awkward for him. "That's what I thought." I left him with that and walked out the door.

I walked to my house from the guild. I went inside and cleared out my Dimension space of things I Destroyed. First was my trainer bag, then my snapback, my Pokégear, my fidget spinner, my Pokéballs, a bunch of junk food, my speakers, laptop, pillows, blankets, and a bunch of other shit. Easy unpacking. The last thing I Summoned was my previous job request. I was about to crumple it up, but then I thought, what if I kept it? If I were to become a Legend, then wouldn't I want a legacy? After debating with myself, I ultimately decided to keep it and every next job request paper I did.

I thought about how I was gonna get stronger. I realized that I couldn't just fight monsters head-on without gaining natural strength too.

"What would I have to do? Push-ups? Sit ups? Lifting? Running? Squats? I guess I could do all of those." I figured that in order for Erza to lift that giant horn with no sweat, she would have to seriously work out. I wanted to do more than that. If I was gonna become the strongest, then I would have to start small, and then work my way up to being able to lift a bus with one hand, no sweat. And I don't mean one of those school buses either. I mean one of those huge tour buses, including the weight of the full capacity of people inside. I dropped down onto the floor just to see how many push-ups I could do. Straining so hard that you could see my blood vessels through my skin, I was able to achieve 54 push-ups, military style. I continued to do more push-ups, and then as many sit-ups as I could do, then squats, and then a whole training regimen of exercises. I lost count of how many of anything I did, but when I looked out the window, the sky was getting dark. I had been building slight muscle beforehand, but when I was so weak that I couldn't do any more, I saw a drastic change. I was packing way more muscle than before. I passed out on the floor, exhausted.

When I came to, my muscles and basically everything ached so bad, but I was so satisfied. I tried getting up, which proved to be a task, but I eventually just ignored the soreness and pain completely and dashed out the door. I looked at the job request information to see where the location of the town was (Northeast Fiore), and summoned Fearow to fly to the town.

Apparently, the locals with the morph monster problem had the problem for over 5 years. The monster dashed around the town, confusing the shit out of me by morphing into the townsfolk. I didn't want to hit them because I was afraid that I would hit the actual person instead. I sent out my Pokémon all around the town to corner the monster, who cowered in a corner and begged me not to kill them. They told me that they were just lonely and they wanted the townsfolk to notice them. I was very hesitant. I was really pissed off because I thought that I was going to do some monster hunting, but instead, I went all the way to some town to _spare_ a monster instead?

I didn't think so.

At least I had gotten 50,000 Jewel for nothing.

But still.

God dammit.

I flew back to Magnolia disappointed, obviously. I entered my house and checked my Pokégear. 1:37 A.M. _I guess I'll sleep in_ , I thought. I stripped down to my underwear, because I was sweaty as a pig. I plopped down onto my bed, on _top_ of the covers. Yeah, I have fire powers, but being hot and sweaty is the same for me as it would be for anyone else. Fire to me is like room temperature air. I don't feel anything. (However, if I were to sit in a freezer room, my body heat would first of all, melt all the ice around me, and second, it would be no different as if I were sitting in a regular room.)

The rest of the week continued routinely, I went to the guild, got a monster hunting job, I would go home and work out, and then I would do the job. People at the guild didn't see me too often, but some of them, like Natsu began to refer to me as "The Monster Hunter". I also managed to get a new leather jacket from a clothes store. If the quests meant that I was becoming stronger, if it meant I was gaining new Magic to use, then I was fine with that.

However, a certain incident would soon increase my powers to a whole new level.


	33. Chapter 33: The Lullaby

**Disclaimer: I don't own One Punch Man or any of the characters from it.**

I entered the guild after completing my 19th monster hunting quest, ready to fight Natsu like I promised, but he didn't look like he wanted to fight. In fact, he was rather serious, oddly. Everyone was silent but turned their heads towards me as I walked in.

"Perfect timing, Vinny," said Gray.

"We were just talking about you. Don't worry, we weren't saying anything bad," said Natsu.

"Um, are we gonna fight? I did promise you that I would fight you, but what's going on? Why is everyone so silent?" I asked curiously.

"Vinny," Erza addressed me. I sort of jumped and faced her. "I need your help, along with Natsu and Gray's. There's a problem that I'm concerned about, and since Master is off at another meeting, I decided that I would settle it myself, myself meaning with you, Gray, and Natsu."

"What about Lucy? She's a part of our group."

"If she feels so inclined."

"Huh? What?" Lucy was obviously not listening to a word we said.

"Lucy. You're a part of our team," said Natsu very seriously for once.

"Okay, and?" she said. "What about this?"

"I need you all to lend me your power," said Erza. Everyone went silent.

"Erza, asking three of the strongest guys in Fairy Tail for help?" murmured the other guildmates.

"I don't believe it!"

"Don't forget Lucy."

"Why Vinny? He's a newbie like Lucy."

"They might be newbies, but they have some experience, especially Vinny."

"Erza, Vinny, Natsu, Gray, and Lucy, I never thought about it before, but with all your powers combined, you might be Fairy Tail's ultimate team!" Mira addressed all of us.

"Cool. So we form a big team and go fight someone, and then we become Fairy Tail's strongest team? Sounds good to me," I commented.

"No, not just someone. The Dark Guild, Eisenwald." Once Erza said that, everyone in the guild gasped and it went so silent, you could hear a feather drop.

"Huh? What's an Eisenwald?"

"Eisenwald is a Dark Guild, or an illegal guild. I'll explain some other time. We leave tomorrow morning though, so be at the Magnolia Train Station at 7:00 sharp tomorrow. And _don't_ even be a second late." I noted that she put emphasis on "don't", which meant that something bad would happen if one of us was late.

That night, I exercised like I never had before. I exercised past 12:00 A.M., doing countless push-ups, sit-ups, squats, even going as far as to using the chairs as dumbbells. I even exited my house and started doing laps around Magnolia just to build up my speed. I remember when I was a kid, I saw a funny cartoon of a superhero named One Punch Man who could blow away enemies in one single punch. In the cartoon, he had a crazy training regimen, where he did 100 push-ups, 100 sit-ups, 100 squats, and ran 20 miles every day for 3 years, and he could take out enemies in one punch. I knew that it would be impossible to become that strong just from that kind of training, but I used it as motivation to push beyond my limits. I must have fallen asleep around 2:00 or something and I was so tired, but so satisfied.

xxxx

RRRRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGGGG!

I sat up in bed suddenly and looked at the clock. 6:00, just as I had set it to. I fought myself out of bed and into the bathroom where I brushed my teeth and did other things you do in the morning. My muscles were a little bit sore, but I mostly just ignored it.

I had gotten ready and was out of my house by 6:20, which then I flew quickly to the Magnolia Train Station. At the station, I struggled to stand up, but I didn't want to sit down, otherwise I would be tempted to fall asleep. I was greeted by Erza, (who was carrying way too much luggage) however, and it seemed almost insulting the way she was wide awake as if she already had been for hours.

"Good morning, Vinny."

"Gmorng..." I mumbled. "Srry... havin' trouble staying awake... Erza, slap me across the face." I lifted my face so that she could wake me up. She held her hand in her other hand, hesitating to slap me.

"I can't. You're too nice, sorry. I don't want-"

"Do I have to deserve it? Just slap me, bitch." She reacted almost instantly. But she didn't slap me across the face; she punched me, hard. So hard, it actually hurt, even with a steel skull. I was wide-awake.

"WHAT DID YOU JUST CALL ME?!" She shouted menacingly, shaking her hand painfully. Some people passing by looked at like she was crazy.

"Chill out," I said, rubbing my nose. "Obviously I didn't mean it. I'm not asking for a death wish, I just needed something to wake me up because I didn't have time to get coffee. Forgive me, Erza, as it meant nothing. I just thought if I got you angry somehow, then you would hit me." I was kind of unfazed even though she punched me, but I _was_ awake.

"... Alright. I will forgive you. I will say, that hurt. What are you made of?"

"Steel. My bones are steel. I inherit them from my mother."

"You're a steel type wizard?"

"And fire. Well, neither of them is magic, anyway. It's inborn power."

"That's interesting... It's odd though. Who asks to be hit by another person?" She asked rhetorically, but I answered anyway.

"A person who wants to surpass the almighty Erza, um, I don't know what your last name is."

"Scarlet. Erza Scarlet."

"Well, it does certainly fit you. A person who wants to surpass the mighty Ezra Scarlet wishes to be punched by her when he asks."

She stifled a laugh, but she couldn't help but smile. "You're a very strange young man."

"Thank you." I tipped my fedora.

"So you're the new monster hunter, huh? It's a fun job."

"Yeah. I know, right? I like fighting." I smiled. But then my smile faded away almost instantly. "But I fight for a reason, and that reason is not a fun reason."

"What is that reason?" Ezra started, but Natsu and Gray walked up to us, groggy and grumpy.

"Why did I have be assigned with you-" started Natsu, but when he saw me and Ezra, sitting _together_ , He and Gray put their arms around each other's shoulders and held hands.

"Ezra! Vinny! Good morning! What a good day to get along! Uh, beautiful day, isn't it?" said Gray, but he caught my death glare and decided to shut up. Lucy tagged along behind them, and looked as groggy as them.

"I'm watching you two," I mouthed, pointing my two fingers at my eyes, then at them. They jumped and gulped simultaneously.

"Let's get along today! Really!" said Gray, pumping his arm in the air.

"Aye _sa_!" said Natsu, who did the same. I turned my back while still being able to see them, with them not knowing that I could see them. Sure enough, their foreheads clashed together and they gave each other a death glare. I Shadow Switched to their combined shadow, and they were pretty surprised by this.

"I saw you two. You better get along with each other, or I'll kick your asses. Got it?" Both of them nodded furiously. "And you both better get along when I'm not there, because I have other eyes."

"So Charizards have more than two eyes? Cool!" exclaimed Natsu, still nervous in tone.

"Ugh, never mind. Naive little..." I trailed off, not bothering to waste my brainpower on that. You can change some people's actions, but you can't change them sometimes. Just as that thought was passing through my head, the train pulled into the station just like my train of thought. Hahahaha... Ah, I could make so many jokes about that instance. Anyway! The train that pulled into the station was our train to the destination.

"Erza! I have one condition for going with you!" called Natsu. Gray tapped him like he shouldn't ask whatever he was about to ask.

"Hm?" Erza turned her head to look at Natsu, who grinned and clenched his fist.

"When we get back, I wanna fight you!" Gray put his face in his hands, and I swear I heard him mutter, "Idiot!" Lucy looked rather surprised. Happy was standing there eating fish, not giving a care in the world. Erza turned fully and examined Natsu, as if she was a doctor. Heh, imagine that.

"You _have_ changed, but although I'm not confident..." She smiled too. "I accept your challenge."

"Yeah! All right! I'm all fired up!" Natsu's head caught on fire and he roared ferociously.

"Natsu, I thought we were gonna fight! What happened to that?" I reminded Natsu. To this, he nodded.

"I haven't forgotten! I'm just as fired up! I can't wait to see what you're made of!"

"Organs," I muttered stupidly. Finally, we boarded the train, which departed just as soon as we boarded. I sat down in a seat next to Erza and Lucy, and Happy Gray and Natsu all sat across from us. As expected, Natsu got motion-sick the _moment_ the train lurched forward. We sat down, but Natsu collapsed in the seat like a pathetic ragdoll. Drool snaked down his chin and he groaned loudly.

"Here, come sit over by me. Switch seats with Lucy," said Erza. Lucy and Natsu got up and sat down in each other's seat. "I'll help you relax." Erza brought Natsu's head down gently onto her chestplate armor, and then took her fist and socked Natsu in the gut, making him do two things: barf all over the floor, and fall asleep. Or into a coma, not that anyone could tell the difference. Lucy was pretty shocked by this action, Happy happily munched away on his fish caring less about any situation, and Gray pretended not to notice.

"Hey Erza, weren't you gonna tell us about the Eisenwald thingy?" I asked curiously. She nodded slowly.

"Eisenwald is a dark guild, like I mentioned. They plan to do something with a thing called the 'Lullaby'."

"Lullaby... Wait! Then those guys from before...!" gasped Lucy. I looked at Gray, who looked at me too, slightly worried.

"Lower your voice!" I whispered.

"So you guys heard about the Lullaby too?" said Erza.

"Erza, I don't know if this concerns you or not, well, probably does, but that's beside the point. So while we were returning from a job request, Happy was captured by some creepy dudes who were gonna cook him alive. So we defeated them altogether, and one of the short dudes muttered something like, 'Lullaby... lullaby...' while he was tied to a tree. Some shadow hand came out of nowhere and pulled them all underneath the ground where they hopefully suffocated and died. We couldn't catch or see who pulled them under, as they were too fast, but I have a hunch that it was someone from Eisenwald."

"That's a believable story. It's quite possible that those wizards you encountered were refugees from Eisenwald. The Lullaby plan must've been too much for them. The one who fled may most likely be from Eisenwald as well. I was coming back from a job request the other day, and on the way home, I stopped by a pub in a town. I overheard some guys talking loudly about retrieving the Lullaby. I became suspicious, but like a fool, I ignored it. I remember the name they mentioned, Erigor. He's the ace Dark Guild Mage."

"Lullaby. That's like, a nursery rhyme, right?" said Lucy.

"Yes. The fact that it was sealed away means that it was incredibly powerful magic."

"If it's so powerful, why didn't they call it something different like, 'the song of doom'?" I suggested.

"It could have something to do with demise and death," said Gray. "Sounds like something from a bad horror movie."

"That guy who dragged those guys down with shadow may have been one of Eisenwald's main forces. I don't blame you guys for not catching him, but you could've done something to slow him down!" Erza sighed. "We're right on their tails, yet we don't know what they're planning..."

"Well, they're probably planning something evil, right?" I asked Erza, who was eating a strawberry cheesecake out of nowhere.

"Yes. They must be," responded Gray, who munched on a sandwich. I Summoned a bag of potato chips, because why not?

The train slowed down and pulled into Onibus Station. Erza, Happy, Lucy, and Gray exited the train, and I followed after them. I was almost out the door when I stopped. I felt like I was forgetting something, and I rushed back to my seat. I almost forgot Natsu. None of my belongings were there because everything I had, I could Destroy. Just Natsu.

"Hey, Natsu! Wake up! The train stopped. Get up." His mouth was wide open and he snores loudly. I slapped his face lightly.

"Get up! Come on. Everyone is waiting outside-"

WHOOOOOOOOOOO! The whistle on the train blew loudly, and the train lurched forward. I knew Natsu wasn't much for transportation, so I tugged at his arm desperately.

"HEY! Come on Natsu! Get your ass up! The train is leaving!" He didn't budge; all he did was groan.

"You guys are from Fairy Tail, correct? How pitiful," said a voice from behind me, noting the guild mark on my bicep. I whipped around and saw a guy with black hair sticking up in the back and a white jacket, about my height and possibly a bit older. I ignored the guy and turned back to Natsu in an attempt to get him up.

"Natsu! I don't care how you are with transportation; get your sick ass up right now! The train is moving, God dammit!" Suddenly, without warning, the guy kicked my back hard.

That was a mistake on his part.

His leg twitched uncontrollably, and he lowered his injured foot. I covered my ears, and I could still hear him screaming at the top of his lungs in complete pain. Here's some advice for some people: don't kick metal.

"What the hell?! Why you little son of a... You think that you're so smart, huh?" I turned around, pretending that I didn't feel him kick me.

"Eh? What happened? Are you okay, or do you need to take your medication? Who are you talking to?" I suppressed a laugh as he pointed towards me.

"Don't bullshit me! You felt that, and I know it! Eh, hey! Where are you going? Get back here!" I completely ignored everything he said and I carried Natsu on my shoulder towards the door.

"You idiot. Do you know who I am?" he growled maliciously.

"No, and I really don't care. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to take care of some business with a dark guild. To be honest, I'd rather be monster hunting right now, but I didn't really have a choice." I kicked open the train door which fell out onto the ground and tumbled away.

"A dark guild you say? You're in luck. I'm from that dark guild." He got a crazy, evil look in his eye. I didn't even twitch.

"Alright then. Natsu, I'm gonna put you down right here..." I placed Natsu down in a seat, in which he slumped down and groaned. "Well, let's get this over with, then." I started off by charging a Flame Ball, but he quickly cancelled it out by hitting me with Shadow Magic.

"What the hell...!" Then I had an epiphany. That guy, who pulled those guys under the ground with Shadow Magic, must've been this guy.

"Hey, sleazebag. Did you happen to pull a bunch of guys underground with that magic a few days ago?" I asked.

"What do you care? Knuckle Shadow!" He used the same attack from before, but I was able to dodge the predictable.

"You know, if you're fighting another being that can understand words, you shouldn't say your attacks out loud, it makes it way too predictable." I Shadow Switched to his shadow, then used Titanium Fist in quick succession. "You can attack without speaking, as you saw. I would love to use that attack you just used, by the way. If I defeat you, maybe I could learn it." Suddenly, the train came to a screeching halt, knocking us both to the ground. A little thing fell out of his inner jacket pocket, which looked like a flute with a three-eyed skull. Creepy. I picked the flute up and inspected it. "What's this thing? A flute? Huh, I never knew how to play a flute. Mind if I try? I mean, I probably suck at it-"

"No! Don't! That's no ordinary flute!"

"Yeah, I figured. It's got a creepy skull with three eyes on it. I wonder if I can play the One Punch Man theme song on this."

"Don't! You'll get us all killed! THAT'S THE LULLABY FLUTE!" I stopped. He smirked at me. "I knew you'd listen, you incompetent fool. Now be a good boy and hand over that flute." I looked at the creepy flute. I didn't feel like Destroying it, but I knew that if I gave it to him, he would probably play it. I moved the flute to my steel arm. "Tell me about this flute, because I'm an 'incompetent fool.' Educate me, why don't you?" He glared, and then used his same attack from before. It hit me, but the flute didn't fly out of my hand because I had an iron grip on it.

"God, you're so predictable! You call that Magic? I'll show you magic." I used my new Dimension Magic, Dimension Drain on him. He was grabbed by my Magic and held up in the air while I drained him of his Magic Energy. He struggled to get out, with no luck. Finally, he dropped to the ground and tried to use Knuckle Shadow, which I already saw coming. However, I didn't see his next attack coming. The shadow fists blocked any way to escape, and then he used the same Magic as when he pulled those guys under.

"Shadow Pull!" he said once he got a hold of me. I didn't struggle; I just waited patiently. I slid closer and closer to him as the shadowy hand pulled me towards him, but suddenly, it just disappeared, along with the shadow arms.

"What... what happened to the shadows?!" He tried to use his attack again, which worked only for a brief second. "What happened to my powers?"

"Aw, I thought you would've guessed! The attack I used on you? _It drained you of Magic Energy_. What are you going to attack with now? Your fists? Your feet? Oh wait, that's right! You can't. Do you give up?"

"I still have..." He pulled out the flute. I charged Flame Ball to Mega Flame Ball and released it at him, making him fly back to the other side of the car. Dust and debris flew everywhere, blocking my field of vision.

"Oh no you're not! Come out and fight!" I looked around, but all I saw was dust. Suddenly, from behind me, he took a piece of debris and swung it at my head. It _did_ hurt. Clever. I fell to the ground and he planted a foot on my back. He took other pieces of debris and slammed them all down on me. I didn't have time to react, and the pieces kept coming. Finally, he was out, and he pulled out the flute. He put the flute to his lips, ready to play a song, but I had enough time to grab his foot, lift it off me and throw him back, and Shadow Switch to his shadow. While I was in his shadow, I Summoned my book and flipped to one of the pages titled, "Water Magic".

"Alright, you piece of shit! Not that you can hear me anyway, but here goes! Water Magic: Wave Blast!" A mini water vortex formed in my hands, and then I jumped out of the shadow and unleashed a wave of water on him just as he turned his head, clogging his nose and lungs with water. The water flowed out of the train, exploding out of the broken roof and smashed windows, and finally drained out. I'm sure the guy wasn't dead, but I absorbed from The train came to a stop once more, and Natsu woke up.

"*Blorf* Ughh... What the hell happened?" he coughed. "Why is everything wet?"

"I'll explain later. We have to go, now! Erza and the others were back at the station, and we need to go back and reunite. Come on! Let's go!" Natsu grabbed his waterlogged belongings and we jumped out the door.

We were met with an unpleasant surprise. A shirtless guy with white hair, tattoos, and a giant reaper weapon thingy confronted us as soon as we stepped out of the train.

"Who the heck are you two? Did you cause that giant wave to explode? Do you know who I am?" he interrogated. Natsu growled and ignited his fists, but I motioned for him to cut it out.

"I don't give two shits about who you are, and you don't scare me. Don't expect to take my stuff, bandit." He growled, and slashed at me with his reaper, or tried to. I caught the blade with my steel arm and cracked it with my hand. He obviously wasn't expecting that, and he staggered back a little.

"Actually, I take back what I said. I _do_ give a shit about who you are, if you're from Eisenwald," I said, and he grinned big.

"Bingo. I'm from the dark guild Eisenwald. My name is Erigor- AUGH!" At that moment, a car drove up, knocking him and a few other teammates out of the way. Driving the car (from the _outside_ ) was Erza.

"Vinny! Natsu! You're okay!" she exclaimed.

"Skip the talk, Erza. I think we found the Eisenwald guys. I'm, uh, not gonna question what the hell that is," I pointed to the car. Lucy and Gray got out of the car, and looked around.

"What- already?! How..."

"I can explain later. For now, I think we have something to take care of." I pointed towards Erigor, who was, er, no longer there. He had gotten up, surprisingly, and was standing in front of us now.

"Do you know what we have to accomplish? Humph. Worthless little flies. We're going to Oshibana station to broadcast Lullaby so that we can cleanse the land of all its filth. Oh, and your precious guild masters? Say goodbye to them," he laughed maniacally.

"Oh, wow. So you're just gonna say your plan, _out loud_ in front of all of us, like, dude! Are you even trying?! Come on! Announcing your master plan out loud for all of us to hear? How can you even call yourself a bad guy? Well, not that _you_ would call yourself that, but, come on!" I yelled. "God, if I was in your place, I wouldn't tell anyone my master plan so that the plan can follow through! I mean, how Goddamn stupid can you get? At least say your master plan before you're about to activate it!" Erigor obviously wasn't expecting this, and he looked rather surprised.

"Wind Magic: Storm Bringer!" A huge vortex of wind surged up and carried him and his guild mates away.

"God, why the hell do people always announce their attacks? That just makes it more predictable because the other person can hear what attack you're gonna use, and then- ah, you know what? Forget it," I groaned.

"Nevertheless, we must go after Erigor and the others!" exclaimed Erza. "After them!" We all jumped in the car (Natsu got sick the moment the car dashed forward) and sped off. Natsu barfed all over the floor, typically.

"God dammit, Natsu," I muttered as I Destroyed the pile of vomit.


	34. Chapter 34: The Bridge

**Warning: This chapter includes graphic violence. If you don't like it, read another one of my stories.**

"This is taking a while!" I shouted to Erza as we rode down uneven terrain. "Couldn't we take the train instead?"

We had been driving for almost an hour, trying to catch up to those Eisenwald dickbags. No one was near giving up, and Erza, the one driving the car, didn't answer us because she was so determined to get them too. Similar goals?

"Erza! You're going too fast! You could tear the energy plug!" added Gray. Natsu was hanging out the window, Lucy was pulling him back, and Happy didn't give a shit about anything. Suddenly, the car bumped down a rocky path and we headed into a town.

"Oh no, this is bad. This is very bad," I muttered as Erza mercilessly plowed through the streets, the townsfolk barely getting out of the way in time.

Then, there was an explosion. I looked up, and all I could see were billows of smoke rising up into the air. Erza presumably saw it too, because she turned left furiously, and headed to the center of town where the explosion occurred.

Coming to a screeching halt, Erza stopped in front of a large crowd of people. Immediately, we jumped out of the car, well, except for Natsu. Lucy had to carry him out. Erza marched up to the wall of guards blocking the building, a train station.

"What's the situation going on here?" she asked.

"Huh? Who are you- Augh!" He didn't get to finish, as Erza punched him across the face. Then she walked up to another guard, asked him the same question, and punched him in the face when he couldn't answer.

"Wait! Hold up! Hey!" I called to Erza when she was about to beat up the last guy.

"Come on, Erza! Guy, what the hell happened here?"

"T-there was a loud explosion-"

"Yes, we know that already! Couldn't you be a bit less obvious?"

"I think there was a train crash or something. A group of armed forces went in to take care of Eisenwald, but they have yet to return. That's all I know, but why do you care?" Erza looked at me, and I nodded. She ran inside the station with the others, and I punched the guy in the face.

The train station was tremendous. The ceiling must've been big enough to stack 5 or more of me, Mega Evolved. We ran towards the entrance to the terminal and saw a horrible sight.

All the guards that went in were all sprawled out on the floor everywhere, dead. I even checked one guy's pulse. He was dead and gone.

"Do you think Eisenwald is behind this?" whispered Lucy who was still carrying Natsu on her shoulders.

"Hm, I don't know," I said sarcastically. "The guild we're after who stupidly announced their plan out loud, saying that they were going to come here, and most likely crashed the train? What do you think? Couldn't you make it any more obvious?"

"I was just clarifying..."

"I think it's already clear enough. Let's go." Erza led the way up to the terminals where, surprise, the whole entire guild, Eisenwald was standing. And sitting above them on a ledge was, you guessed it, motherfucking Erigor. God. Dammit.

"Erigor! Get your ass down here now, you asshole! What'd you think we were going to do? Stand around after you told us the plan and let a whole bunch of people die? Uh-uh. That's not happening on my account. With us five..." I motioned to us, and then to the rest of Eisenwald, "...against all of you. None of you stand a chance against us."

"Heh. You're all talk. I expected you to come here, to find out about the plan, so that you could join in on the cleansing. I didn't tell you the plan and expect you to walk away," he laughed an evil, horrible, laugh. "I expected you to arrive. I crashed the train on purpose, to grab your attention and lure you here. And now that you're here, there's no use in running. Once we broadcast Lullaby, this city will be cleansed of its filth."

"You know what the definition of filth is? Those tattoos on your dirty ass face." The rest of the members murmured, "ooooohhh..."

Erigor jumped up and started hovering with his Wind Magic. "We'll see whose face is dirty after this."

"But why are you guys doing this? What do you have to gain from this?" shouted Lucy. Erigor smirked.

"Power! That's all we want! By destroying a whole city, we will be able to prove our power."

"You're mad! That's not how you-"

"Lucy! Say no more!" I shouted. "It's pointless. Don't you get it? They don't listen to our voices. They only listen to our fists. All of you against five of us-"

"Me too!" called Happy.

"Him too. Against all of us."

"It's you again! You're the one who beat me up on the train!" shouted the guy in the white coat.

"Seriously, Kageyama?" murmured the guild mates.

"He beat you up? That kid?"

"Yeah well, that 'kid' got me in trouble with Erigor! He saw the flute! Now," he prepared a magic attack. "It's payback time. Sorry you flies are going to see the afterlife without being able to witness the age of darkness!" Yet again, he used Knuckle Shadow, but it was much faster than before, giving me less time to think.

"Oh shit! Uh, what spell, what spell," I muttered as I flipped frantically through my book. I flipped to "Water Magic".

"Wave Blast," I muttered as I deployed a towering wall of water, blocking the attack and surging closer to the Eisenwald members.

"Guard Shadow!" Kageyama surrounded most of the guild members with a wall of shadow. The rest of the members who weren't surrounded got washed away. They couldn't see what was going on, so I Shadow Switched to the wall of shadow and jumped out. I Mega Evolved, and got ready to use an attack. A ball of flame formed in my hands, growing bigger and bigger. The wall of shadow lifted, and then...

"Giga Flame Ball." I unleashed the mega attack at Kageyama and the some of the other guild members. The Flame Ball exploded on impact, sending the rest of the guild flying.

"Hey." I heard a voice from behind me. I whipped around, and Kageyama punched my face with Knuckle Shadow. I landed a few feet away, and a bunch of guild members landed on top of me, forming a dog pile. They punched me, a mistake, and they used magic. The attacks didn't do too much damage, but I realized the longer I stayed there, the more they would whittle me down. I focused my fire power in my body all over, in my arms, my chest and torso, my legs, my head, everywhere. It was difficult, but I was able to focus my energy on every part in my body. And then...

"Fire Shield!" Flames engulfed my whole body, making me untouchable. Fire erupted out from every part of my body so suddenly and created a foot wide wall of flame around my body. The guild members closest to me were scorched and got second-degree burns and then everyone was blown off in all directions.

"Rrgh! Everyone! Get the rest of them!" shouted Erigor, and he disappeared instantly.

"NO! DON'T LET HIM GET AWAY!" I screamed. "YOU SON OF A BITCH! WAIT'LL I GET MY HANDS ON YOU!" A group of guys dashed at me with swords and swung hard at me. I blocked in time with my steel arm and charged Flame Ball with my right hand, blasting them all.

"Natsu! Gray! Go after Erigor! I must stay and fight alongside Vinny!" They death glared at each other. "GUYS!"

"Aye sa!"

"Yes ma'am!"

"Erza, I need you to hold these guys back for me," I said, switching back to my normal form. "I need to go after Erigor. Also, we need a pair of eyes to keep an eye on Natsu and Gray, because you know how they are. You can fight alongside Lucy instead. She's tough as well."

"What if you do encounter Erigor? He's too strong!"

"Erza. You need to trust me. If I meet up with him, I'll do my best to defeat him." She nodded and I ran after Natsu and Gray. Behind me, I could hear the angry shouts of the Eisenwald members and Erza attacking them all. I stopped and looked back. I knew I could count on Erza, the strongest woman in Fairy Tail, to take down a whole guild. After snapping back to reality, I set off towards Natsu and Gray. I had other things to worry about.

Up ahead in a long hallway, I heard the voices of Gray and Natsu arguing back and forth.

"Why did I have to be stuck with you?" grumbled Natsu.

"Quit stealing my line!" responded Gray. "Work together? You've gotta be kidding me!"

"You can't mix fire and ice! It's impossible!"

"Erza's so selfish-minded!"

"She always thinks she can do everything on her own!" Natsu and Gray stopped and gave each other the death glare.

"I can handle this by myself!"

"Don't copy me!"

"Shut up!"

"Both of you shut up!" I yelled as I ran up to them and whacked them both upside the head. "The longer you stand there, the more time Erigor will have to activate the Lullaby!"

"Where the hell...?!" exclaimed Natsu.

"Why're you telling us what to do?" grumbled Gray.

"BECAUSE. IF YOU DON'T GET ALONG, YOU WON'T RETURN TO FAIRY TAIL," I growled in my demon voice. Natsu and Gray jumped. "Focus on the goddamn task at hand!" We were apparently at the end of the hallway, and there was a fork in the road.

"Both of you can go a separate way. Natsu, go right. Gray, go left. I'm going with you, Natsu."

"Why him? What do you have against me?"

"Who said I had anything against you? I'm going right because right is my dominant hand. I know, stupid reason, but if given the choice- never mind. Natsu, go ahead. I'll catch up." Natsu nodded and ran off. I turned to Gray. "If you run into anyone, they're most likely going to be from Eisenwald. So don't hold back. Attack immediately, and get information about the Lullaby plan. Force the information out of them if you have to. Now go!" He nodded and darted away, leaving just me. I looked right, then left and thought about how I would deal with this situation. I wanted to beat the shit out of Erigor for being such an idiot, and for threatening Gramps. I couldn't say I'd known anyone in Fairy Tail for my whole life, much less of a whole year, but if anyone threatens my friends, they'll be halfway to hell by the time I'm done with them. But then I also thought about my power, and how weak I still was. I was nowhere near the level of Erza yet, and still quite a ways away from surpassing Natsu. Would I be able to take down Erigor by myself? Probably not, but if I managed to then my power would grow immensely, surpassing Natsu by a long shot. I snapped back to reality suddenly, and dashed after Natsu.

"I wonder, *huff* if I have *huff* Speed Magic spells. *huff*" I flipped through my book to see if there was a Speed Magic page yet.

Nope.

Way to be difficult, book, I thought. Suddenly, up ahead, I heard sounds of voices and crashing.

"Hahaha! If you beat me, then maybe I'll consider telling you where Erigor is," said Kageyama's voice.

"How fortunate, 'cuz you're gonna end up telling me, andI get to beat the crap outta you! Two birds with one stone!" replied Natsu. "Now I'm all fired up!" Then there were sounds of swift feet and Magic. I came to a hole in the wall where Natsu probably destroyed it. I carefully stepped into what looked to be a storage room. Kageyama unleashed a whole wave of Knuckle Shadows at Natsu, but he was too quick on his feet and dodged every attack that Kageyama threw at him.

"Nimble bastard! See if you can dodge this! My Snake Shadow will follow you!"

"Hah! I'll shatter you! Fire Dragon's Wing Attack!" Two long ropes of fire covered Natsu's arms and he whipped them down on the Snake Shadows.

"What?! Impossible! How could he have taken them out in one shot?"

"The same way I'll take you out..." I said, charging up a punch with my regular arm. "... Like trash on garbage day." He turned around when he heard my voice, and I hit him square in the nose, making him fly back towards Natsu.

"Natsu! Get 'em!" I shouted towards Natsu.

"I'm one step ahead of you!" He ignited his fist and punched Kageyama back into a wall, breaking it. He didn't get up, and I ran over to him, grabbing him by the jacket.

"Hahaha! Looks like we won, Diorama!" laughed Natsu.

"I-it's Kageyama...!" he said weakly.

"Alright! Tell us where Erigor is! TELL US NOW!"

"... Hahaha. You idiot. Erigor isn't in this station anymore."

"What?!" said Natsu.

I punched Kageyama. "Don't call me an idiot!" Suddenly, we heard footsteps and I saw Erza and Gray rushing up to us.

"Natsu! Vinny! That's enough! We need him!" shouted Erza.

"Nice going, idiots! Look at all this destruction you've done!" added Gray. Suddenly, Erza jumped up in the air with her sword. Natsu thought it was for him.

"I'm sorry Erza! Don't hurt me!" Of course, it wasn't for him, rather for Kageyama instead. Erza sliced her sword in the wall up to Kageyama's neck. Since he couldn't move, his head could've been chopped off.

"Kage! Destroy the magic Wind Wall around the station or else!" commanded Erza. Seeing as he had no other choice, he slowly nodded.

"Wait, what? Is there something that I don't know about? What the heck is a Wind Wall?" I asked.

"It's just what it sounds like. It's a surging wall of wind that surrounds the train station. It's one way only, meaning that you can enter, but you can't exit. If you try to exit, you'll be ripped apart by the surging winds," answered Gray.

"Would it even rip apart metal?" I gestured to my steel arm.

"I don't know. But you wouldn't be able to stay on the ground anyway even if you are made of steel. The 300 mile an hour winds would blow you away. Well, unless you were immensely heavy andmade of steel or maybe something stronger."

"Holy shit. So we're talking like, rocket speed."

"Vinny! Watch your tongue! I'd hate to see something bad happen to it!" shouted Erza.

"Oh yeah, I forgot. She's not the happiest camper right now." But just then, a fat hand reached through Kage's chest.

Okay. It's not that I cared about Kageyama dying or not in other circumstances, but if he was our only means of escape, then hell yeah, I wanted him alive.

"Don't die, Kage! We need you!" shouted Erza. I noticed the guy sticking out of the wall, who had a scared expression on his face.

He just killed Kage. We needed him to escape.

But the fat guy killed him.

He killed his own guildmate.

Killed.

 _No... I won't have it... even if I don't give a shit about Kageyama... no. I won't have it,_ I thought. _He was our only escape. No. NO! I WON'T FUCKIN' HAVE IT!_ I clenched my fist in a vice grip and power marched over to the guy in the wall. He saw me approaching, and quickly slid back into the wall. Reacting quickly, I used Titanium Fist on the wall, knocking a large part of it down. He was also affected by the attack and became temporarily stunned.

"No! Let him go, Vinny!" called Erza.

"I can't let him go," I said, with a crazy look. "NOT WHEN HE KILLED OUR ONLY CHANCE OF ESCAPING AND CATCHING ERIGOR!" I dashed suddenly at the fat bastard and grabbed him by the neck, pinning him up against the wall. He attempted to use the same spell he used on Kage, but I gripped his fat hand in my steel hand and snapped his wrist. He screamed in pain, and his arm dangled, the familiar sight of shiny, red blood trickling down his wrist.

"Stop!" Erza rushed up behind me with her sword, but I held up my steel arm, blocking her attack. I pushed against the sword, and pushed it to the ground. With my other hand, I slashed at her with Flame Claw, to which she held up her arms.

"Ground Magic: Pillar Stone!" I touched the ground and then thick pillars of stone rose up, separating me and Erza.

"What will killing him do for you?!"

I didn't answer, because fatty was getting away, touching the wall so that he could merge into it. I grabbed his collar and yanked him back, throwing him on the ground. He rolled to the side, but I used Hammer Fist, bringing my fist down onto his huge belly, making him spit up red.

"Now you will answer my question instantly. If I don't like your answer, THEN YOU'RE GONNA SEE HELL'S GATE IN _SECONDS_."

"What question?"

"Can you cure Kage? If you can, then do it now."

"No, I don't have anything. He's going to die- WAIT!" I raised my fist, and started to bring it down towards his face. "There's another way out!" I stopped, but still broke some of his face bones and teeth. "The wall only surrounds the surface! It doesn't go underground. You can dig a hole under the train station leading to the outside. That is, unless you want to wait a few hours to wait for the Wind Wall to die out, but by then, all of your precious guild masters will be dead! Ahahahaha!" I lowered the pillars. Erza was still trying to break through them, and almost did, but she stopped once she saw them lower.

"Erza. There's another way out. He said- HEY! I didn't say you could leave!" The fatty was trying to escape through the wall again, but I grabbed him by the collar again. "Anyway. He says that we can escape by digging underground to avoid the Wind Wall."

"...! Why didn't of think of that before? Let's go!" I took one more look at the fat guy. I punched his fat mug, knocking him back into a wall. Natsu, Gray, and Erza had all gathered, and even Lucy and Happy joined the scene. Altogether, with Kage as well, we rushed toward the entrance, past the terminal and outside where, sure enough, was the Wind Wall. The winds surged around in a mighty cyclone, like an upside down tornado, trying to vacuum us up into the sky. I touched the wall with my steel hand, which jolted back instantly, causing sparks to fly.

"Yep, definitely impassible," I muttered, shaking my hand out.

"How are we going to dig a hole to the other side, though?" questioned Erza. It didn't occur to me right away that I had a way of digging. "Vinny. Do you have a digging spell that you can use?" I Summoned my book and flipped through it quickly.

"Ground Magic. Power Quake, Pillar Stone... Huh. That's it? Hmm... Let me try something..." I rolled up my sleeve, revealing my whole steel arm. I punched the ground, which made the bricks barely dent.. I stood up, scratching my chin.

"This floor is made of hard bricks, but is there something that I could break these with?" I tapped my chin. "Something that can drill holes... ah, I got nothing. Oh, wait. Wait. There's something on the tip of my tongue." I thought about it pretty hard. I knew I had drilled a hole before, but I hadn't done that. I tried to remember.

"What in the world did I use to drill the hole? Nothing else could've drilled through, except for... oh, that's right! My Pokémon! I could use Tyranitar! He can dig holes!" I summoned Tyranitar. "Tyranitar! Try breaking the floor! Try making a hole from here to the other side of that wind wall. Be careful not to touch it, though." He nodded, and stomped his foot down onto the ground creating a large hole. Then he began to punch the hole, faster and faster until he drilled through the ground and to the other side. Without waiting another second, Natsu (With Kage on his back), Lucy, Happy, Gray, Erza and I all jumped into the hole and hurried over to the other side. The moment of truth was when Natsu was able to pass through, meaning that it worked! Take that Erigor, you fuckin' piece of shit.

"Alright! We're out!" shouted Gray over the howling winds.

"We don't have much time! Let's get going!" commanded Erza.

Suddenly, we heard a groaning sound coming from Kageyama. "Heheheh. There's no way you'll be able to save your guild masters. Unless you can fly like Erigor... Heheheheh. We win...!" I slapped him in the face.

"Shut up! If you want to live, then shut your mouth! We're gonna win this! You'll see! Don't ever underestimate our power, especially Natsu's. Right, Natsu?" I looked over to where Natsu once was.

Both he and Happy was gone.

"He probably flew off to fight Erigor. He's not nearly strong enough- Vinny! Where are you going?" shouted Erza as I Summoned Fearow.

"I'm going off to help Natsu. With both of our powers combined, we could take down Erigor, or at least hurt him pretty bad. I'm doing this for our sake. I'm doing this for my sanity because the world can't even stay at peace for FIVE FUCKING SECONDS!" My voice slowly crescendoed up to a roar. "I hate anyone who's evil. I hate anyone who threatens my guild, my friends, or me. But if they threaten my guild master, they better say their prayers, because that's the last prayer they're ever gonna make. I don't know if I can stop Erigor..." I looked at everyone. "... But I can sure as hell do my best." I tapped Fearow on his neck and he nodded. He got a running start towards the Wind Wall and took flight, barely missing the wall.

"Fearow! Follow the tracks in that direction!" I pointed to the train tracks going right of the station. Fearow ducked his head in response and shot off like a rocket. The tracks continued out to the edge of town, and then entered a grassy field. The tracks were long, even with Fearow flying faster than a train. "Faster Fearow! Or I won't be able to save the guild masters! You're doing great! You can do it!" Fearow nodded in acknowledgement and sped up. Suddenly, the tracks on a green, grassy plain turned into a bridge riding over a rocky, bottomless ridge. Jagged pillars of stone rose up from the abyss as a painful reminder to those who choose to cross the bridge on foot. I wouldn't even want to think about anyone slipping off the edge, hanging on for their life. Fearow soared high up in the air, above the rugged terrain and safe from the rocky abyss. Up ahead, over the howling wind in my face, I heard the sounds of crashing and fighting. Why did I always show up late for the fights? I mentally kicked myself. I saw that Natsu had landed in front of Erigor and he saw me coming up behind Erigor, who couldn't see me. Suddenly, I got an idea.

"Fearow! Fly down and use Drill Peck on the white haired guy!" I jumped off Fearow, and Fearow dived in for the attack. Erigor was quick enough to dodge Fearow's attack, but I dove down towards Erigor just as he turned around. He was also quick enough to put up a mini Wind Wall around him- wait, Wind Wall? Wind Ball? Wind Shield? Well, whatever he called it, my fist bounced off the barrier, preventing me from damaging him. I flew back, flipping in the air, but then Fearow caught me and set me down on the ground. I flipped through my book to see if I could use a spell that would be good against Erigor's Wind Magic. Neither Natsu's nor my fire power could break Erigor's wind shield because I knew that wind puts out fire. Of course, that didn't stop Natsu from perpetually attacking Erigor with fire attacks nonetheless. Shadow Magic would have no effect on the shield because it would pass through, Ground Magic wouldn't do shit because he was in the air. What would do well against Wind Magic? I thought as Natsu continued to fight Erigor. Suddenly, I had an idea. If I was fast enough, then I could Summon Gyarados to use Hydro Pump or Surf get rid of the wind barrier because if I had a large amount of water and dumped it on a flow of air, it would disrupt the flow, whereas a tiny spray of water wouldn't do shit. But I would need Erigor to stay in place, and I knew that he would be able to see Gyarados trying to attack without a proper distraction, and Natsu would be all over the place, keeping Erigor as a moving target, so that wouldn't work. I looked over at Fearow and got an idea.

"Fearow. I want you to fly around Erigor very fast. Make sure that he keeps his eyes on you. I never taught you the move Double Team, but you can try to make illusionary clones of yourself. Now go. I have a plan that could work." Fearow nodded his head, then set into flight around Erigor.

"What the hell?! What's with this bird? Get away from me!" As he tried to fight off Fearow, I Summoned Gyarados, commanding him to use Surf. Immediately, Gyarados began to produce a water attack, and then he released a big wave of water on Erigor, who was too aware of his surroundings and dodged the attack.

"Ah, I get it now. How adorable. You try to get your pets to fight for you, because you can't fight on your own? Aw. That's cute. However, you know what's going to be better? When I rip you all to shreds with the might of my winds!" As he spoke, I motioned for Gyarados to use Hydro Pump on Erigor. A moment after that, a large blast of water was shot towards Erigor. But stupid me, I obviously didn't learn my lesson; no matter how I tried to attack Erigor, he would dodge, and then he unleashed an attack of his own.

"Wind Magic: Storm Bringer!" A large cyclone of wind blasted out of Erigor's hands and hit Fearow dead-on, knocking him over the bridge.

"Oh shit! Fearow! Come back!" I Summoned Fearow's ball, but then Erigor aimed his attack at the Pokéball, knocking it over the ravine. It fell with great speed and disappeared amongst the sea of jagged rocks. Fearow, who was unconscious, fell over the edge, on the verge of meeting the same fate as the Pokéball.

"No! I got you, buddy!" I got a running start and jumped off the bridge in a desperate attempt to save Fearow. The jump was not enough, and I ended up using Flare Burst to extend the length of the leap, catching Fearow in my open arms. I thought Fearow was safe, but only then did I realize that I was about to be dragged down with Fearow.

"Aauugh! Happy! Help me!" Happy darted away from Natsu, who was still trying to fight Erigor. He flew over to me and grabbed my arms, trying to pull us up. But the weight of Fearow and me must've been too great, as Happy was straining to keep us aloft.

"C-can't! Hold! On!" cried Happy. His paw slipped, and he lost hold of me for a second. "What did you eat today? Bricks?"

"Shut up and help me!" I quickly grabbed his hand again, pulling him down a bit from the downward momentum. Suddenly, an idea sprung into my head.

"Go! Mewtwo!" I Summoned Mewtwo's ball and threw it up onto the bridge, with Mewtwo emerging from a bright red light. "Mewtwo! Use Psychic and help us back up! Happy! When I tell you to let go, you can let go!" He couldn't nod because he was straining too hard, but he made a little noise that told me he understood. Mewtwo pointed his arm at us and took Fearow out of my arms, placing him gently down on the bridge. However, Erigor was too quick, and knocked Mewtwo and Fearow back over the side of the bridge.

"Ugh... fuckin' relentless..." I panted.

"You weak little bastard. I could throw you off the bridge right now." Erigor marched slowly over to me as I tried to get up, but he planted his foot on my head, keeping me on the ground. "But I'm going to be generous, okay?" He brandished the Lullaby. "I'm a forgiving guy, and I'd hate for you to miss out on this wonderful song! So you know what? I'm going to play it right here, right now, and end your suffering."

"Oh, you're all too kind... but I won't... let you... play that... Lullaby!" I strained hard to lift his foot off my head, but I had almost no power left, and he was too quick.

Determination didn't matter in this situation. I was determined as humanly possible, but do heroes get power from just determination alone? Forget Undertale. That's a fantasy game where freakin' animals can talk and DETERMINATION is like an injection or something. I was right all along.

I was weak.

"Let me tell you a little something, punk. Wherever you're from, well, guess what? You're not there anymore. You're in Magnolia, you weak bastard. I was going to let you die honorably, but now I'm gonna make you meet the same fate as your little pets-AUUUGH! HURTS! SO! MUCH!" Suddenly, Erigor lifted his foot from my head, and held his own, writhing in pain. Mewtwo stood there, using Psychic to give Erigor a headache. Fearow was trying to stay in the air, but I wasn't doing so well, and I began to black out. The last thing I remember was Natsu creating a fire wall around himself, sucking up Erigor's Wind Wall.

Then everything went dark...


	35. Chapter 35: The Weakling

**Disclaimer: I don't own Terminator or any characters or anything from the franchise. I only referenced it.**

... Dark...

... Cold...

Slowly, I awoke to the sounds of loud voices and screams, or something...

"Huh...? Where am I?" I sat up slowly, trying to suppress the explosion within my head. Checking my surroundings, I realized I was on an icy mountian being perpetually battered by a ferocious, howling blizzard. Suddenly, amidst the sub-zero freezing climate, a horrible sight sent chills rushing through my nerves, making my blood colder than the fierce blizzard above me.

Standing in front of me tied up, hostage to my new enemy, was my mom.

"Mom...! Are you alright?" I edged closer to see her face, all bloody and bruised, but the figure keeping my mom hostage morphed its arm into a blade and put her into a headlock.

"If you move an inch further, I'll slice her head off without regret," growled the figure. I hesitated, as if a wall was keeping me back.

"What do you think you're doing?" My voice trembled and my fists clenched. I was scared shitless, confused, but also angry, above all else. My eyebrows curled and lowered, and my eyes became dark. I rolled up my sleeves and got into a battle stance, but holding to fight. The figure brought its arm closer to my mom's throat, so I stopped. I Summoned my Book of Magic to look for a spell to use, but once I found one, I looked up and the figure and mom were gone. I looked up to see mom suspended high up in the air, but the figure was nowhere to be found. Then suddenly, from behind me, a powerful burst of energy blasted me in the back and sent me flying forward, headfirst, into a thick pile of snow and ice.

"What do I think I'm doing? I'm wiping out every last one of your filthy kind. You can't defeat me, you're not strong enough. You're not even worthy to face me," it spoke in a deep, masculine voice. He disappeared in a flash and gripped my head, making my fedora fall off. He crushed my fedora with his mighty foot and tossed me up into the air, wildly unleashing an insane amount of attacks in a split second. His final attack upon my chest caused me to plummet back down to the mountain, fracturing my metal spine.

"And they called you the True Descendant? Pah! Descendant my ass! Look at you. You can't even defeat a single wimp on a bridge! Erigor isn't even that strong, compared to me. And you want to avenge your father? That poor excuse for a Charizard? What's with these names? The 'Great Charizard'? Ha! What a laugh! If he was so great, he _might've_ been able to land an attack on me. No on has ever been able to even come within a two foot radius of me because I'm so strong. _I_ should be labeled as Great! The Great Sorcerer! The Great... Elementia." A hollow, maniacal laugh escaped from his mouth, shaking the surface of the mountain. "And you? You're nothing but a pest. A wannabe mage. Look at you, you pathetic _weakling_." He planted his foot on my back and grabbed my metal arm, twisting it around and snapping it off my body as if it were nothing but a twig. The pain immediately surged throughout my body like a rushing wave of water. I couldn't scream, because the amount of pain immobilized me completely, nearly making me pass out. He flipped me into the air and jumped to match my height, then morphing my arm into a sharp stake, he forcefully jammed my metal arm into my chest over and over, cracking my rib bones, ripping my stomach open, goring my liver, bursting my intestines open, piercing my lungs, and stabbing my heart, unleashing a deep red, gushing fountain of blood out both sides of of my wide open chest, staining the snow a deep crimson.

 _Why?!_ I screamed internally. _Why am I so weak? Why is he so strong? It's like putting a chicken in a ring with a hungry lion, except it's on extreme steroids and is a self-righteous bastard with a crazy bloodlust. Why is this happening?_

Suddenly, all my thought came to a complete halt when I saw that Elementia grabbed hold of my mom in the same headlock as before, and slit her throat, then he threw her body down into the snow and completely hacked off her head. I _froze_. Now, not only my father, but my mother was also dead, murdered by the same asshole.

I couldn't hold in what happened next.

I became so unimaginably infuriated that my whole body combusted, erupted into flames as my boiling, burning rage consumed my soul. My body vibrated intensely, faster than an earthquake ever could, my teeth clenched so hard that I could hear and feel my molar _smash_ under the pressure. My face first turned red, then deep purple, then pitch black as my eyes bulged crazily and my only hand clenched up with this new energy I never knew I had. That's not to mention my fire which was burning hotter than every attack I had ever used, combined. The energy caused me to evolve spontaneously, to Mega, then bigger, then to further evolutions that I had no idea what were called until I evolved into a glowing, burning beast that I couldn't even describe because at that moment, the fire energy focused into my feet, and I dashed forward at insane speed that Elementia obviously wasn't expecting. I unleashed a huge, swirling fire attack in a crazy fraction of a second, screaming my nonexistent heart out-

" _ **AAAAAAAAUUUUUURRRRRRRRGGGGHHHH!**_ " I screamed myself awake, engulfed in flames, as I used a stronger version of Flare Burst in my Mega Evolution on... nobody! Once I gathered consciousness, I saw that I was lying on the ground, with Gray, Natsu, Mewtwo, Erza, Lucy, and Happy all looking down on me, eyes wide open as my own snapped open and I reverted back to my original form. I was still a bit weak from the bridge fight so I had a bit of trouble standing. I immediately checked my chest for any blood or any opening. Fortunately, I found nothing.

"Are you alright Vinny? What was _that_?" said Lucy.

"I guess it was just a dream... thank god. Wait, what happened? Since the bridge, I mean...! Hold on! Where's Fearow?!" I looked around frantically, and Mewtwo held out Fearow in his arms who, luckily, was still breathing, but very slowly. I took Fearow into my arms, patting his head. I noticed his Pokéball was gone and made a mental note to visit Professor Oak or someone about it. Then that reminded me. I was worried about my mom. I didn't care if it was just a dream, I figured I should tell her about the dream I had and some of my suspicions.

Snapping back to reality, I realized we were still fighting Eisenwald. I assumed my dream must've been pretty long, because the first thing I noticed was that it was dark out.

"How long was I out for? What happened?" I asked.

"You were out for a pretty long time, since an hour ago," said Erza. "Kage stole the magic mobile and the Lullaby, so we're chasing him down so that nothing bad happens. Then you started having a fit in your sleep, I hope it was a dream, and I had to drop you to avoid any harm to myself. By the way, I had to carry you all the way here, and let me just say, it wasn't an easy task. You are _unbelievably_ heavy. It's like picking up a giant monster."

"Who picks up a giant monster anyway?" questioned Lucy.

"Damnit! I knew I should've destroyed the flute when I had the chance! I should've destroyed it on the train!" I groaned. "Well, with the situation at hand, there's no use in saying what I should've done. Right now, I _should_ be chasing after Kage. We all should."

"Vinny's right. We must go now!" Erza shouted, and everyone ran off. Mewtwo was about to go too, but I stopped him.

"Stay here with Fearow and watch him. Since he doesn't have a Pokéball to return to, you need to watch and take care of him. By the way, where's yours?" He used his telekinesis to pull up his Pokéball, still in good shape, and handed it to me. I Destroyed it and started to run ahead, but then I remembered something that could possibly cure Fearow.

"Mewtwo, give Fearow to me." I Summoned a revival herb and fed it to Fearow who stirred a bit after feeding it to him. "Right. Make sure his heart rate doesn't go down. If it does..." I Summoned a hyper potion and gave it to Mewtwo. "... spray Fearow with this twice. Once he's healed, find us." I ran off to meet up with everyone else, who formed a crowd with a bunch of other people. I didn't recognize any of these people, but then I saw Makarov giving Kage a pep talk and realized they must all be masters from other guilds.

"What's going on...?" I whispered.

"Hush, Vinny! Listen!" whispered Erza back.

"...Weakness is not always a bad thing, because humans are naturally weak," Makarov spoke mightily. "To be alone is not easy. That's why we establish guilds, where we have friends and allies. To flourish, we work together and strive. The weaker ones, sure they run into more walls than others, and they might take longer to get there. But, as long as we just believe, we'll be able to find strength." Kage was looking quite frightened, so I assume Makarov must've said something I missed. "If you lead a strong life, you'll be able to smile, without having to rely on something like that flute."

After a few seconds, just like that, Kage dropped the flute and to his knees in surrender. Everyone ran up to greet Makarov, and I stood there, in awe at him. Not only did he have power in his magic, but he also had such power in his words. I looked down at myself, my hands. One powerless, normal hand, and the other a metal hand, yet still powerless. I couldn't get over the fact that I was so weak.

 _Maybe Elementia was right_ , I thought. _Back home, I was a champion! Here..._ I looked upon everyone else who was semi-celebrating the defeat of Eisenwald, and then back down at my powerless hands. _Elementia was right. I'm nothing but a weakling. But..._ I clenched my fists hard. _I don't see that as a reason to give up and quit. I don't want to just lay down and give up. My father... the fate of his legacy and the entire Charizard Legion is in my hands! I have_ _to... become-_

"Mrahahaha! Cowards! Nothing but a bunch of cowardly mages, every single one of you!" What interrupted my thoughts was a dark, demonic voice coming from at first what seemed like nowhere, but once I saw a purple cloud of smoke rising into the air, I saw that the flute had begun to create a huge magic circle looming overhead.

"You're calling us cowards?!" I yelled. "Says the one who remained a flute for so long, hiding! Why don't you show your true form, _coward_?!"

"I'd be glad to! I can't stand it anymore! I'll devour you all myself!" Out of the magic circle, came one colossal foot, followed by another equally as big, then the monster's whole body, and finally its three eyed head. "All your bastard's souls, that is!" A big grin spread across its ugly, crooked face.

"What is this...?! I had no idea about this!" gasped Kage.

"Its a demon from the book of Zeref," said a guild master, I assumed. " _That_ is the Lullaby, Zeref's magic; Living Magic."

"Zeref? You don't mean, the wizard from ancient times?" said Kage.

"Zeref was known as the most terrifying mage in the history of the magic world!" said a different guild master. "I never thought the centuries old magic would show up now!"

"Whose soul shall I devour first? Perhaps Mr. Fedora down here who thinks he has the _balls_ to stand up to me?"

"Oh, YOU WISH!" I shouted, clenching my teeth and rolling up my sleeve, exposing my metal arm. Behind me, I heard Erza ordering Natsu and Gray to get everyone away from the area. _Good, no one else will die when I destroy this guy,_ I thought. Far away, I heard voices cry out, "Attack!", followed by the monster's bellowing response of, "Begone, small fries!" and with that, a large beam of energy shot out from its mouth, completely obliterating a distant mountain. The far away cries turned into cowardly shouts: "Retreat! Retreat!"

The monster turned back to us. "I've decided! I'll devour the souls of all of you pathetic mages! Mrahahahaha!"

"Pathetic?" I said calmly. The Lullaby cocked its head.

"Why are you calm about this? I suppose you _want_ your soul to be devoured, is that correct?!"

"You're big. You're the Lullaby," I said, a sudden realization washing over me. As I spoke, I began to Mega Evolve. "And I'm Vinny. I'm small. So is everyone else here. But frankly..." A dark look grew in my eyes. "... Who gives a shit?" I said loudly. "You think you're all high and mighty, just because you're _so_ big and you have a kill streak of 9 million people- alright, who gives a crap? You might be scary to some, feared even, but you know what you are to me? You're just another monster. Another mindless, cowardly monster." The Lullaby bent down low and snarled at me, barring its teeth so hard, I saw its head vibrating. "Do you know who I am? No you _don't_. Because you're a mindless killing machine. I'll tell you who I am, though." I straightened my fedora and glared at the Lullaby, cracking my knuckles and my neck. I took a few steps forward. "I'm a monster hunter. Fairy Tail's Monster Hunter. Do you know what I _do_?" I charged Flare Burst in my hands, larger and larger, until it was massive; much bigger than before. I dashed forward, towards Lullaby.

"I hunt monsters, like you. Flare _Laser_." Unleashing the mighty attack, Lullaby tried dodging, but being as big as the monster was, it also meant that it was slow. "Everyone! Attack it!"

"Alright!" cried Erza as she Re-quipped into a different armor.

"I don't need telling," said Gray, preparing an ice attack.

"Already on it!" yelled Natsu, flaming up his fists. All at once, Erza slashed away at the monster, Gray shot Ice-Make Lance at it, and Natsu jumped and used a Fire Dragon Iron Fist right at its face.

"She's a Re-quipper!" shouted many people below.

"And he punches with fire!"

"He attacks with ice!"

"The other guy..."

At that moment, the Lullaby crashed its fist down onto my place, which I jumped to dodge. I ran up its arm, but it shook me off and slapped me away. I thought I was going to fall and crash down but just then, out of nowhere, Fearow swooped in and caught me on his back.

"Fearow, buddy! You're okay!" Fearow nodded and flew in towards Lullaby.

"He's an... animal tamer...?" said the people down below.

 _Animal tamer... shut up_ , I thought. "Fearow! Keep this momentum! Fly in and use Steel Wing!" Fearow dived in, while I jumped off his back. He stuck out his wings and sliced the monster with razor sharp feathers. In the air, I used my Dimension Magic.

"Dimension Drain." I absorbed the Lullaby's Magic Energy through my hands, keeping me suspended in the air as I sucked up most of its power.

"No, he's a Mage as well!"

"Then what was with the pet bird?"

 _Do they have to say everything out loud?_ I thought, annoyed.

"Aw, sorry, did I take your Magic Energy? Do you want it back?" In my hands, I formed a large ball of energy, then holding it above my head due to the size. "Take it then!" I did a midair somersault, then hurled the ball of energy down at the Lullaby as if I were dunking a basketball. The flow of energy stopped, and so did my midair suspension, but Fearow caught me before I started to plummet.

"You're all pissing me off! Die!" The Lullaby swiped its fist at where we were standing, but we jumped out of the way and prepared to attack.

"You want another one? Fire Dragon Wing Attack!" cried Natsu, bringing large ropes of fire from his arms crashing down onto the monster. At the exact same time, Gray unleashed another mighty ice attack, and Erza skillfully slashed and dodged the angry monster's swiping attacks.

"Oh yeah, another thing I realized; you're made of wood, so you're flammable. Not so good against fire type users, are you now? Sure you have a song of death that can kill thousands..." While talking, I charged my Flame Ball to Giga then unleashed it on Lullaby. "... but you're going to have a hard time actually _playing_ the song, aren't you? Why don't you sing us all a song? Sing us a song, creepy flute monster, sing us your song tonight! We're all in the mood for a melody, and you've got us feelin' alright!" I taunted.

"Oh yeah? You want my song? I'll sing my song for you, and see you at the gates of _hell_!" Then, the Lullaby began to suck up all the magic energy around to use its song, as he had none left after my Dimension Drain. As a magic circle appeared above its head, it let out a deafening cry, making everyone cover their ears. Then...

Squeak!*

... was all that came out of the Lullaby's gaping mouth.

"HUUUUUNNNHHH?" everyone cried, mouths agape in disbelief.

"It's the holes," I said.

"Huh?" said Lucy.

"Oh, now I get it. I understand what you mean. The holes made from the attacks earlier..." said Kage.

"...Are what's preventing the Lullaby from playing its song," said Lucy with a sudden realization.

"My voice! My beautiful voice! I can't play anymore! I'm ruined!" cried the monster. Then, with a dark glare, it turned on us and swept its hand, capturing me. The monster went on a complete rampage, kicking down hills and mountains as if they were simple dirt mounds, and ever increasing its grip on me.

"You! You've done this to me! I don't care about your little friends either! This is your fault! I will destroy you now!"

All I could do was smirk.

"Why do you smile? Why do you think this is funny? ANSWER ME!" the Lullaby bellowed.

"I'm just laughing at how pathetic you are. And you're calling _us_ pathetic? You're one to talk. Looking for someone to blame. Ha! You call us cowards? You only name us so because you're afraid. You have all this power, but yet you're afraid."

The Lullaby looked me in the eyes closely. "Afraid? Of what? I've nothing to be afraid of! You yourself put it clearly! You said that I'm big and you're small. So tell me, you pathetic coward, what do I have to fear?!"

My eyes went dark and shadowed, and I said:

"Me."

With that, I took advantage of the monster holding me in its giant hand and sucked up all his stored power with Dimension Drain, except what happened next was greater than what I expected. The Magic Energy being sucked up converted within my body to pure energy, and then, already being in my Mega Evolution, I began to grow even larger, experiencing a whole new wave of power and energy I had never experenced yet. My Mega Evolution was simple, just grow a little bit larger than my normal self, hair becomes sort of fire shaped, power is increased, and steel arm becomes bigger and more jacked. But this new form, this new evolution was quite something else.

This was my next evolution... Giga Evolution.

My hair started to grow longer and I grew a bit larger, then my steel arm began to glow, morphing much like Elementia's arm in my dream. The properties of my metal arm suddenly changed from solid steel to liquid, like the T-1000, then hardening back into steel. Through my evolution, I had learned a new move: Steel Morph. I morphed my arm into a blade shape, making it razor sharp, then I sliced off the Lullaby's hand causing it to scream and howl in pain. I cut myself loose from the dead grip and ran up the monster's arm, who grew angry and swatted at its arm, but missing me completely. Taking advantage of it, I sliced off its whole arm, then jumping above its head, charging my Flame Ball. With the new amount of power surging through me, I was able to charge Flame Ball even larger than before. Creating a small Flame Ball in my hand, it started to grow larger, to Mega Flame Ball, then to Giga Flame Ball, and even larger to the point where it was larger than my arm's length, so I held it at my side. I was using up most of my physical energy, but I strained. I pushed myself to the current maximum level, until-

"Monster... Flame Ball!" The roar of the the surging Flame Ball was louder than my mighty cry, as I sent the monstrous ball of fire crashing down onto the Lullaby. As soon as it made contact, the roaring flames surged around the Lullaby, burning as bright as a star, incinerating it down to ashes, utterly demolishing it, reverting it back to Magic Energy once and for all.

The area was surrounded in flames. Weak and wavering, I struggled to stand, but I rose up slowly and marched triumphantly out of the raging sea of flames.

"Look! Coming out of the fire!"

"He... he did it!" cheered the people. The people started cheering for me as I walked out of the fire storm, but I couldn't hear anything that was being said. I trudged slowly, my movements growing more and more sluggish until my legs completely gave out and I collapsed on the ground.

"Vinny!" cried Natsu. He ran over to me, looking down on me, eyes wide open. "Don't you die on me!"

"What?!" I jolted upwards. "No, you dumbass! I'm not dying...! I'm just... exhausted. Man..." I exhaled heavily and my head dropped. Everyone else ran over to me and exulted my victory.

"You did well, Vinny. However, I think you overdid it a little..." Erza said, gesturing to the nonexsistent meeting building.

"Oh shit..." I mumbled. Erza slapped me across the face but hurt her hand instead.

"Oww... just... watch your mouth, Vinny," she said, soothing her hand.

"Sorry..." I whispered.

"Vinny! That was totally awesome the way you handled that giant Lullaby!" said Lucy excitedly.

"Good job, dude," commended Gray. "That's way better than what I could've done."

"That was so cool Vinny!" exclaimed Happy. "You attacking with a giant fire ball was so awesome! And I thought Natsu was the only one! First you grew big, and then you grew even bigger, and your arm did this crazy thing..." I didn't hear what he said next, because I passed out from exhaustion.

xxxx

I woke up in an unfamiliar bed. It was all white, bedsheets and all. The blanket was pulled up to my face, so lowering it, I looked around the room. There were two other beds that were just the same, so I assumed that I wasn't in my house or (god forbid) Lucy's house. A sudden horrible realization then came to me.

"Oh no..." I groaned. "I went a whole DAY without exercising!"

"GOD DAAAMNIIIT!" I got out of bed and grabbed my jacket, hat and scarf from a coathanger and darted out of the room, not exactly sure where I was or what I was doing. I flung the door open...

"AARRRGH!" Realizing too late that I was actually at Fairy Tail, I ran out of the room and paused. There was awkward silence that followed.

Then all at once, everyone erupted into applause and cheering. I had forgotten about my daring feat. I walked over to the bar and raised up my hand, silencing the whole guild.

"Everyone, please listen. While I defeated the monster, yes, I only finished it off. You're all acting as if I defeated it alone. If you want to praise someone..." I gestured to Natsu, Gray, Lucy, and Erza who were standing in different spots. "Look no further, because _they_ were truly the ones who defeated the monster like it was no one's business. Honestly, I couldn't have done it without them. If you want to applaud someone, then give a round of applause to the strongest team in Fairy Tail." Immediately, everyone bursted into applause and shouts of joy, commending the conquerers of the Lullaby.

"That was really cool of you to do, Vinny. How are you?" said Mira.

"I'm doing a little better, thanks," I replied.

"What was that? When you bursted out of the emergency room?"

"... I'm not strong enough," I said, my expression growing dark.

"Huh?" questioned Mira. "What does that have to do with-"

"I'm bothered because I went _one_ day without working out. Exercising. It may not seem like a huge deal, just one day, but you must understand. I have an exercise routine that I _must_ follow every day. I must build up my physical strength along with my magic. If I just strengthen my magic, that leaves me weak. I must be able to not rely on _just_ my magic all the time, and work on my combat skills, my strength and all around muscle training, endurance, and balance in energy and spirit. If I don't work at this, then I'll remain as the weakest member in Fairy Tail."

"But you're not the weakest! No one is! If anything, you're one of the strongest members, and on top of that, you only started a few weeks ago!"

"Mira, while that may be true, I can't _not_ push myself harder. If you look at Natsu or Erza, their power level is way beyond my own. If I don't strive for that, at this rate I'll be nothing more than a weakling. I do this..." I closed my eyes and thought of my father, and the fate of possibly all the Regions, or even the entire world. I thought about Elementia, how he wasn't even using a fraction of his power in my dream, to kill me. I didn't even want to know what his full power could do; with his power, he could destroy whole planets.

That was the moment that I set an even greater goal to strive for. _Screw Natsu or Erza's level, or even the strongest Mage in the entire world, god knows who that is,_ I thought. _There's a saying, which says, "Shoot for the stars, and if you don't get there, you'll land on the moon," but now with my greatest enemy at stake, possibly the strongest being in the world, there's no "landing on the moon". It's either the stars or- no, not even the stars. At this point, I need to shoot for far more than just the stars._

"I do this... to stand above all else." I said triumphantly. Mira looked down, then looked back up and nodded.

"But... make sure you don't push yourself _too_ hard," she said.

"... Alright." _No_ , I thought. _I'll push myself as hard as possible, until I reach Elementia's level, and beyond._

"Hey, Vinny! Remember our fight?" called Natsu.

"Hm. Yeah, I remember. Couldn't it wait though? I just woke up-"

"Naw, we should fight right now!" He exclaimed. At this point, everyone was listening to Natsu, anticipating a fight. I knew I couldn't back down, because I had already postponed it once, and pushing off a second time would make me look like I was chickening out.

"... Alright. I accept your challenge. Let's take this outside, because I don't want anything getting ruined."

"Alright, just a heads up, I'm going all out. I'm not taking it easy on you," he said.

"Alright. Fine by me." I had a bit of doubt, because I still labeled him as weak in a way.

Everyone cleared out of the guild pretty quickly, me and Natsu being the last ones out. Everyone formed a wide circle around us, with me and Natsu at the center facing each other. Mira stood to our side as a referee.

"Each person will fight against each other. Vinny, Natsu, each one of you will fight until one of you has no strength left," shouted Mira. She looked over at me, making eye contact. She gave a little smile, and I swear I could see her blushing. "Both sides may not acquire any assistance. Once knocked down, the opponent is given ten seconds to get back up. If they fail to do so, then the other opponent wins." She held her hand out, gesturing to both of us as she spoke. "May the challenge begin!"

I wanted to say, "You're going to have a hard time fighting fire with fire, Natsu," but he had already started moving, and really fast at that. I held out my arms as if to say, "Let's see what you got, fire boy!" and Natsu moved in for his first attack, Fire Dragon Iron Fist. I'll say, the fire didn't do any damage, but the force of his fist hitting my chest was enough to send me flying back a few feet. I flipped a few times in the air and tried landing on my feet.

"Not bad. How's your fist?" I said.

"Shut up! Fire Dragon-"

"Attack, don't speak," I cut him off by slashing him with Flame Claw. A simple attack, with no need to say what it was.

"Fire-"

I quickly flipped through my Book of Magic and deflected the attack with Wave Blast, but Natsu had found a way around it and punched me in the face with Fire Dragon Iron Fist. Recovering quickly, I tried morphing my arm, but Natsu acted quickly and punched me in the gut with Iron Fist again. Then he began to unleash an impossibly quick amount of attacks all at once, beating me down and not giving me any chance to attack.

"Quit it, pest!" I began to Mega Evolve, then jumping up into the air to use Hammer Fist. Natsu took advantage of this though, and boosted me up into the air higher with a Fire Dragon Roar, and another Iron Fist which I couldn't evade in time...! Just as I had reached the height of my boost, I saw Natsu jumping up to me, boosting with fire on his feet. I then Giga Evolved, which alone took most of my energy, and I dived back down, cloaking my fist entirely in flames.

"Fire Dragon..."

"Flame..."

"Wing/Punch/Attack!" Natsu grabbed hold of me with the ropes of fire while I failed to punch him, and he threw me back down to earth, causing a hole to form in the shape of my body. As his finishing move, Natsu brought the ropes of fire crashing down onto me. I couldn't stay in my Giga Evolution any longer, so I reverted to my original form, nearly out of energy. I couldn't even stand. Natsu dropped back down the ground, practically unscathed.

I never should've underestimated his strength.

When I failed to stand up, Mira announced Natsu to be the winner. I couldn't even describe my anger and frustration.

"Haha! Looks like you lost, Vinny! I warned you that I would go all out!" While he taunted and mocked me, a sudden reflex of rage shot through my arm and as Natsu bent down, my arm shot out and punched him in the face, sending him sprawling backwards on his ass. My burning rage grew higher and higher, but I didn't want to make an even bigger fool of myself, so with as much dignity as I had, I stood up unsteadily and walked into the guild building. Everyone was dead silent. Only one thing was on my raging mind: training. I walked slowly over to the request board and searched for a monster hunting quest. There was one with a 10,000 Jewel reward, but I didn't care what it was. Ever since I got up from the ground, I couldn't stop repeating in my mind over and over, "I'm weak. I'm weak. I'm weak."

The only solution to me was to train until I passed out from exhaustion.

As I trudged slowly outside, eyes shadowed but burning hot with anger, I called Fearow (I hadn't mentioned this, but I couldn't directly Destroy Fearow's molecular structure, otherwise it would kill him. I had tested this with a flower before; I Destroyed it, then Summoned it again, and it was completely wilted and dead. So I couldn't Destroy Fearow because he's a living thing. (Also, Fearow had been hanging around the guild ever since we returned from Clover.)) and hopped on his back.

"Fearow. House," I muttered. I had a lot of training to do.


	36. Chapter 36: The Training

**Warning: This chapter includes a boring training regimen unless you're into that body-building stuff. Think of as Izuku Midoriya's training, except with Pokémon and it involves monster hunting and magic.**

"What a joke!" I yelled as I flew back to my house/apartment on Fearow. It was about noon, so I decided to get a little bit of rest and then "binge-train" Sort of like binge-watching except more intense.

"I never should've underestimated him. I'll never underestimate anyone until I know what they're capable of. even so, I doubt I could've beaten him at this stage, even with my new evolution. I'm gonna call a rematch when I'm stronger, I swear. Until then..." I ground my teeth together and clenched my fists. "I'm going to train like hell until my heart bursts. Sure it'll hurt, but nothing hurts more than what I'm going through. My god, I can't stand it!"

A couple of minutes later, Fearow landed in front of my house. I didn't want him to stay outside, so he went in with me, and was fortunately able to fit in the door.

"Fearow, get some rest now. Once we wake up, you'll train with me too. You'll begin stamina and endurance training."

"Fear?" _"Wait, what?"_ Fearow was confused about the sudden comment about the training.

"Don't question it. You want to get stronger, don't you?" He slowly nodded.

"Fearow Fear?" Fearow asked. _"_ _What about my Pokéball?"_

"You'll have to do without it for a while. If only that asshole Erigor hadn't knocked it off the bridge..." I muttered. I Summoned my other Pokémon too; Pikachu, Breloom, and Mewtwo. I refrained from Summoning Gyarados and Tyranitar because they were obviously too large for the house. Pikachu, Breloom and Mewtwo looked around, confused as to why they were sent out if not in battle.

"Pika?" _"What's going on?"_

"Bree?" _"What's up?"_

"Let me explain. Fearow has been out of his Pokéball for a while now. It's not his fault, however, you all need to get used to it too. Why? Because we're going to start training again."

"Pi-ka!" Pikachu jumped in excitement. _"_ _Yes!"_

"Bree!" Breloom reacted much the same as Pikachu. _"_ _Finally!"_ Mewtwo simply nodded his head.

"I'm your trainer, right? This is what I'm doing. I'm training you guys. But not just you guys, me too. Ever heard of a Pokémon training their trainer? It sounds totally bizzare, but as a fellow half-Pokémon, I'm your friend as well, so you guys will train me too. Get some rest. We will start training tonight."

xxxx

"Alright, listen up guys," I said. My Pokémon were all standing in a line, facing me. I had slept until about 9:00, and regained my energy. "Starting tonight, we will begin our super intense training. However, not only will you guys be trained, you'll also be training me as well.

Pikachu, you'll be training your agility and accuracy. You'll also be training me in speed.

Fearow, you'll be working on flight maneuverability, speed, and agility. You'll train me in accuracy.

Tyranitar, you'll work on your speed and power especially, as you'll be training me with that.

Gyarados, you're training is also power, and water maneuverability which you're also going to train me in.

Mewtwo, your training is in precision and concentration. You're training me in concentration as well.

Breloom, you're going to train your all around combat skills and train me in combat and defense.

You will all have two roles as both Pokémon and trainer, training and honing your skills beyond max. Even though you were all meant to fight against Pokémon you will fight monsters that are out of your league. Be prepared for the toughest training ever. When I take on quests, we will all fight together and train everyday. We only get a few hours of sleep every night, so make the most of it, as we will be training almost 24/7. I want you all to get stronger through training. I need to get stronger too. Let's get to it!"

So began the super intense training regimen that boosted my power beyond maximum, what made me strong. What made me beyond strong. I almost regret it, even.

But that's another story.

The days began with nonstop training, and by the end of the first day, all my Pokémon looked so tired that I thought they would pass out from exhaustion. But they were loyal to me, and I appreciated them pushing themselves even when they were about to pass out. Our training rarely took a break, even only lasting thirty minutes at that. But when I saw that we all needed a break, I agreed to stop for a bit before starting again. On top of the little bit of sleep, we also fasted for a few days every week. When we did eat, we didn't eat too much. We had to eat something to replace what we burned off, but we only ate what we needed.

Every week, I entered the guild, taking a monster hunting quest as usual and quickly leaving to complete it. Maybe greet a few people, say hi to Mira, and resume training. Sometimes Natsu and the others were on their own quests, or sometimes together, so I didn't always see them. I did take the time to at least say hi to them when they were present, though. A lot more people started looking up to me, according to Mirajane. That boosted my confidence, I will say, and pushed me to do better.

I followed a daily exercise routine for myself as well. I stretched, then did push-ups, sit ups, legs ups, running, Every day, I noticed a slight change in my physique and overall performance, as well as my Pokémon's performance and skill. Sometimes I sparred with my Pokémon, making them used to physical combat and stengthening their attacks.

It was almost awkward at first, but as my Pokémon continued to teach me, the better they became, and they were good trainers at that.

Mewtwo trained my concentration, hard. He trained me to concentrate by strengthening my fire power, concentrating it into different parts of my body so that I could move it to parts of my body quickly. With it, I learned how to manipulate my fire power to add density to it, learning a new move called Magma Core. The attack would blast out of my hands with great speed, swirling around the foe and encasing them in a ball of hot lava, incinerating them. I trained Mewtwo's concentration, training his precision as well, training his telekinesis to be more precise, strengthening his attacks like Psychic to become much stronger.

Breloom trained in me hand-to-hand combat, training me for real situations with hand skills and combat. He trained me, well, more like we trained each other, to block effectively, how to counterattack, how to dodge, etc. I trained his moves as well, strengthening them as well as my own. By training with Breloom, I learned how to strengthen my physical fire attacks, such as Flame Punch and Flame Claw.

Gyarados trained his movement speed in water, and strengthened his moves as well. In water, I found one of my greatest flaws: I was too dense in water. Even while holding my breath, I had no buoyancy and I couldn't move very quickly. I also found that my fire powers were useless in water because it was too wet. Gyarados ended up training my power instead. With power training, my strength increased to a point where I was actually able to lift him.

Tyranitar trained in speed by racing with me and Pikachu and running when I exercised. I trained him to lighten his footsteps and to not be so heavy when walking or running by running on the front of his feet, and soon, he was even able to beat me in a race, but not quite Pikachu yet. He also trained my power and strength, training me by having me break boulders he created with my fists, until I could break it with my steel arm.

Fearow I trained most of all. Since I flew on him quite often, he needed to build his endurance and stamina. I trained him by flying out long distances and back without stopping. The funny part about it was that he always pushed himself before, just to carry me at the most. I didn't know whether to take it as an insult or a joke, but I thought it was pretty funny and sad at the same time. Fearow trained in aerobatic stunts and dodging my attacks from the ground. By flying out long distances with me on his back, he was able to strengthen his wings and overall strength. I learned how to increase and decrease the level of my power output when Fearow was training me. By decreasing the output level, I was able to minimize damage done to Fearow when he flew around as a target to help train my accuracy.

Pikachu started out training his agility, practicing dodging quickly and awareness. When sparring, dodging Pikachu's attacks also raised my evasiveness, reflexes, and speed. However, while training with Pikachu, I discovered my other fatal flaw.

When sparring with Pikachu, he dodged most of my attacks, so he wasn't going easy on me. Then, the moment came when a big bolt of lightning crashed down upon me, sending jagged, white, bolts of plasma through my metallic skeletal structure, reaching my brain and paralyzing my movements completely. Thank god I had a full heal out just in case, otherwise I would've been stuck there forever.

"Pika! Pika Pikachu!" Pikachu apologized. _"_ _Crap! Sorry, are you okay?"_ Mewtwo kneeled down and sprayed me, with the full heal, unparalyzing me slightly. However, I was on the verge of passing out, so I allowed a break until I recovered. Problem was, a full recovery took up to a week, but I continued to train, even if made more difficult from my stiffened movements, but I pushed past it anyway. In the end, I had discovered that I was vulnerable to electric attacks.

I also trained my endurance and resistance to certain environments. One day, we woke up and walked all the way to Mt. Hakobe, which took all day. Let me tell you; it pretty freakin' far from Magnolia. When trekking up the mountainous regions, I was reminded of the time we saved Macao from the Vulcan. On the mountain, I set up a camp for a two week endurance trial as a part of our intense training. Gyarados dicovered that his Ice Fang's power was doubled in the blizzardy environment. Every day during the week, we spent a solid hour meditating amongst the monstrous, howling winds, building up our resistance to the cold climate. To prevent us from getting hypothermia, I lit a fire periodically for us to stand around. Even with my heat, I couldn't help being a bit cold as well. As for my Pokémon, they were all starting to catch colds, but they continued to train nonetheless. Our training trained more than just strength and capabilities; it was also a test of determination. However, despite our training, I couldn't help but feel that something was missing like holes in cheese; unbearably unsatisfying. I figured it was Magic or different moves I hadn't learned yet, but I couldn't decide for sure.

Speaking of Magic, throughout the several weeks of training, I had learned a few more spells in my Book of Magic, and a new useful Dimension Magic spell called Dimension Switch that allowed switching between different dimensions, like turning 2D and plastering myself to a wall, or back to the 3rd dimension. The spell had another function as well, as use for teleportation; by manipulating quantum wormholes in the Dimension Space, I was able to open up dimensional portals and travel to previous locations I'd been, but only since the time I learned the spell. So that meant no fast travel back home, I would have to fly or walk back to home, which would take almost a year. That was part of the reason why I trained Fearow the most. When I learned the spell, I trained Fearow to fly long distances so that I could travel back home quicker, maybe within a few days and set a travel location back home. Granted, Fearow would have to take short breaks along the way, but I concluded that we could possibly get there quicker if I trained Fearow's speed as well.

As for other spells and moves, besides the Magic I already had, (before training, I had learned Water Magic, Stone Magic, Wind Magic, and Shadow Magic) I learned Ice Magic, utilizing it in various situations in battle. Ice Magic was the first Magic I added to the book, as the other spells were already there for me to use. That's not to say that I didn't spend time strengthening my other spells. In fact, more often than not, if I wasn't training my capabilities, I was out fighting monsters and learning new spells to use. Or basically, more than half the time. I found the more I used my spells, the more it increased my max Magic Energy limit. My first time adding a new page felt so gratifying, so whole.

It was a few weeks into training, and I had already completed four job requests as a part of my training, within two weeks. That brought my quest total up to 24 requests within the time I had been at Fairy Tail, nearly two months. It didn't seem like a lot compared to completing four quests in two weeks, but that was about to become 25 in two months as I stood in front of the request board searching for the monster quest among all the other requests.

"Aha. 'Eliminate troublesome forest dwelling beast! 20,000 J.' I mean, 20,000 to kill a beast? Seems like it should've been more..." I muttered to myself amidst the lively bustling guild. I called to Mira, "Hey Mira, I'm taking 'you know what'!" waving the request paper. She nodded and gave a thumbs up.

"Go get em', badass!" she called, making me hide a smile with my long scarf.

"Hey, Vin!" called Natsu who was sitting at a table with Erza, Gray, Happy, and Lucy.

"Oh, hey man. What's up?" I said.

"I was wondering. We weren't going out for a job request, all of us, but we were going with Makarov to investigate Clover Canyon. Wanna come with us?"

"Sure, why not?" is what I would've said if I wasn't in the midst of my super intense training.

"Sorry man, can't. Training. I'll catch up with you guys another time, though," I assured.

"Oh. Okay, then. I guess I'll see you around," said Natsu with a hint of disappointment in his voice.

"Good Luck, Vinny! Go defeat those monsters like it's no one's business!" encouraged Lucy.

"I wish you the best of luck, Vinny," added Erza. I nodded in acknowledgement and darted out of the guild. I noted that my running speed had definitely increased, only slightly.

"Damn. It's not enough, I'm not fast enough! I need to do more!" I muttered, running back to my house. Fearow and the others were waiting, training amongst themselves.

"Okay guys. I got a new request, so let's get this done and over with," I said, Summoning their Pokeballs. Everyone but Fearow entered their Pokeballs and I stored them again.

"Fearow? Fear Fearow?" Fearow asked. _"Hey, Vincent? How are you able to Destroy them without killing them?"_

"I don't know. Even I can't explain my Dimension Magic sometimes. All I know is that I can't Destroy organic or living material directly. I think it has to do with the Pokeball acting as a shield for them, keeping them safe from the nothingness of the Dimension Space. It doesn't come with instructions, you know," I explained. Fearow smirked.

"Fearow. Row Fearow Fear." Fearow patronized. _"Yeah, duh. Also, we still need to get my Pokéball fixed."_

"Yes, I know! Why do you think I'm training you to fly farther? I know I gotta go back home and replace your Pokéball, but one, I don't know how to, and two, I don't have any Pokeballs with me." Although slightly annoyed by Fearow's patronizing, I couldn't help laughing. "Alright. Let's get on with the quest, shall we?"

"Fearow!" Fearow cried mightily. _"Let's do this!"_

"Yeah! Let's go kick some monster ass!" I added as Fearow took off towards our destination.

xxxx

"Alright give it all you got!" I yelled to my team, bringing my fist down onto the large beast. The forest beast was a sort of anthropomorphic gorilla monster with red eyes, large horns sticking out of its head, and plate armor. Its body more resembled a human on steroids than that of a gorilla, and it wielded a huge, hulking claymore than even I would struggle to lift. The beast was rather fast and very agile, making it more difficult to hit. But with all seven of us teaming up, we defeated the monster in no time. With Mewtwo using Psychic and telekinesis, Pikachu shocking with all his might, Fearow using Drill Peck to stab holes into the gorilla, Tyranitar heaving boulders at it with great speed and timing, Gyarados trying to land an Ice Fang on its neck, and Breloom skillfully brawling the gorilla monster while on its back. It was a pretty large monster too, as large as my Giga Evolution, even. But we did defeat it, with me finishing it off with a Flame Punch. The monster crumbled, and its soul converted into Magic Energy in which I absorbed. My Book of Magic automatically Summoned, like any other time I learned a new spell, except this time was different. It flipped to a new blank page and the heading, "Ice" appeared, with a new move: Freeze Wave.

"Not bad," I said quietly. Though slightly anticlimactic, it was just a taste of what was yet to come.

But I still felt something missing... what could it be?


	37. Chapter 37: The Visit

A few months went by. A few hardcore training months. My strength had increased greatly, so I did see quite a lot of change. My body and physique had also changed. I wasn't so skinny and weak anymore; that's not saying that I was really buff-ass, but my chest had shaped and popped out greatly, my arms (yes, even my metal arm, with it being solid metal) had gotten larger, legs more muscular, and my shoulders had gotten broader. Having grown a bit more helped too.

But I didn't really care too much about that. Getting jack-buffed wasn't my goal. If it were, then I would train just to build muscle. This was different; I was aiming for building strength.

"Fearow! Fear Fearow Fear!" yelled Fearow, getting annoyed/annoying. _"Hey, quit daydreaming! We need to replace my Pokéball, remember?"_

"You can stop reminding me, because I was going to do that today anyway! We gotta fly back to the Regions, which I don't know how long it'll take. Maybe a few days, at least? But we're leaving tonight," I said.

"Fearow Fearow," he muttered. _"Yeah, watch how we end up not going."_

"I heard that! Maybe I don't have to replace your Pokéball after all."

...

Unable to be serious, Fearow let out a snark, making me laugh a bit until we could contain it no longer and we bursted out laughing.

"Okay-hahaha! Okay! I gotta go to the guild. I'll be back with quest," I said once I had gotten over my laughing fit. "Oh boy, we really don't know what's funny."

xxxx

"Okay, there has to be a quest on here somewhere," I said, searching for a monster hunting quest. The request borad was so cluttered with other boring, uninteresting requests that I couldn't find what I was looking for. "Hey Mira, did someone already take the monster hunting quests?" She motioned for me to come over to her.

"Don't be too disappointed, because you've been absent from the guild for a while, so they started taking the monster quests, mostly the higher rewarding ones." I knew I couldn't always hog all the monster hunting quests, but there were no quests for me. "However, I got a surprise." She held up a quest she was hiding below the counter.

"What...? You're not allowed to do that, are you?" I said, accepting the paper.

"No. Makarov is ususally here, so I can't do that in front of him. Not that I have, but I have a reputation that I don't want to ruin, you know," she explained. I smiled at her.

"Bad girl. You a bad girl," I teased, making her blush. "Seriously, thanks for saving this for me." Taking a chance to look at the request paper, it was a quest to defeat a cloud devil shrouding a landscape in dark, murky clouds. According to the paper, the townsfolk couldn't leave their houses because of intense winds and lighnint strikes ever five seconds. A second out of their houses was asking fo a death ish, either being torn apart by the winds, or be burnt to a crisp if the lightning didn't kill you first. Easy enough-

Lightning. That's the part that got me. I knew that unless I had insulation armor or whatever, than I couldn't stand up to the lightning strikes. Dodging an attack moving at the speed of light was impossible, and using Pikachu on top of Fearow to absorb the attacks wouldn't really work, because then Pikachu would shock Fearow, who was also weak to electric attacks. Tyranitar was immune to electric attacks, but he was too big to stand on Fearow without slipping off. Mewtwo couldn't deflect the attacks with telekinesis alone, so that was out. Gyarados was extremely weak to electric types, and Breloom was more used to ground combat. My spells wouldn't really do too much either, and I didn't have a shielding spell yet. What could I do?

xxxx

"Damn... lightning!" I grunted as I tried using Wind Blow which got rid of most of the dark stormy clouds, but with the demon in the sky, they would just come right back.

"Go, Pikachu!" I Summoned Pikachu's ball and hurled it towards the demon sitting on top of the cloud, who tried zapping the ball with all its might, but all that did was release Pikachu from his ball with twice the power as before.

"Absorb the lightning for me while I try to attack him from above, okay?" I whispered to Pikachu, who nodded and stood out in the middle of the storm.

"Piiii... _KAAAAAA_!" cried Pikachu as he discharged, making himself an effective lightning rod. I then Summoned Mewtwo.

"Mewtwo, if anything happens and Fearow falls out of the sky, I want you to catch him," I instructed, he nodded in reply. "Don't mind me, I can make the landing without getting hurt." Mewtwo stood on guard, and I Summoned Tyranitar.

"Since you're immune to electric attacks, I want you to guard Mewtwo and block any attacks that come his way. Mewtwo, stand behind Tyranitar." Tyranitar shielded Mewtwo and created some boulders and placed them around Mewtwo. With everything set up, I climbed on Fearow's back and we took to the sky.

"Fearow, just fly right in and use Drill Peck. I'll jump off your back and use and attack." Not waiting another second, Fearow dived straight in, using Drill Peck. With perfect timing, I jumped right off to the side and charged a Mega Flame Ball instantaneously, throwing it straight at the cloud demon. I started to fall, but Fearow swooped in and caught me in time. The demon had no time to react to my attack, but recovered quickly and swooped towards Fearow, shocking him with a massive electric attack. Luckily, I jumped off in time, but Fearow's unconscious body plummeted to the ground, smoking.

"Fear! God damnit, fuckin' demon!" I started to fall as well, failing to land straight and plummeting straight into a pool of water. Instantly, my mind began coming up with a better solution, and I wondered why I hadn't thought of it before. I came up underneath the demon and flipped through my Book of Magic.

"Wish I would've though of this sooner, but here goes. Water Magic: Hydro Vortex." I held my closed fists to my mouth, and blew out a roaring vortex of water towards the demon, who saw my attack saw it as the perfect opportunity to electrocute me. However, when it sent a huge bolt of lightning crashing down on me, the water deflected the attack completely and dissipating the cloud. The black demon with neon yellow electric patterns running up and down its humanlike, skinny body dropped to the ground, flailing about.

"Oh, you want some help?" I taunted, marching up to the demon while looking through my book. "Allow me. Water Magic: Aqua Dome." A Magic Circle appeared on the ground, creating a large bubble, completely filled with water. How it worked was, a person besides the caster could enter the dome, but they couldn't exit, and they stayed there until they ran out of air. However, since this monster seemed to have both Lightning _and_ Air Magic, it was able to breathe underwater. But its use of Lightning magic also meant its downfall. While trapped inside the bubble it tried using an electric attack, but the thing about the bubble was that it wasn't an ordinary bubble made of ordinary, pure water like the other Water Magic attacks I had. It was filled with salt water, so the victim couldn't drink their way out, and if they tried using an electric attack, then the conduciveness of the salt water would backfire and electrocute the shit out of them instead.

Clever, huh?

The demon became electrocuted by the water and couldn't handle the level of voltage it had created in the water, ultimately killing it and reverting its soul back uno Magic Energy. The bubble collapsed, leaving two blue, floating balls of Magic Energy. I absorbed the energy, and my Book of Magic automatically Summoned, flipping to two new pages with the headings, "Lightning" and "Air" appearing. Each page obtained at least one spell, Lighning gaining "Charge Bolt", and Air gaining "Vaccuum Lock", answering my question of, "What's the difference between Wind and Air Magic?"

xxxx

Back at my house, I set a teleportation point for Dimension Switch by Switching to inside my house, just past the front door. I did a quick check of my Destroyed storage space, ignoring anything I didn't need and looking for anything I did need for my journey back home.

It was nighttime, and I was planning on leaving soon. Fearow had fully recovered from the quest, and had gotten a bit of rest for the long trip ahead of us.

"Man. Look at us, Fearow. Almost four months ago, we were weak and small. I mean, I'm still relatively weak, but I have gotten stronger than before. You too! Look at you." Fearow was slightly bigger, his wings looked tougher, broader, faster. His chest was stronger, full of stamina. I looked at myself too, in the mirror. My chest was emphasized, abs popped out and shaped, shoulders broad and arms muscular. Not necessarily body builder level shit, but not bad either.

When I was done stupidly gawking at myself in the mirror, we made a stop by the guild, just to bid any goodbyes. Surveying the hall, a few people were there, surprisingly Lucy was still awake, talking a bit to Cana who was drinking a huge ass barrel of booze, not yet red in the face, unsurprisingly. Mira was at the bar, as usual. Makarov was sitting there, trying not to nod off and yet failing to do so. Natsu, nor Gray or Erza were present, so I assumed they went off to bed to catch some Z's.

"Hey Mira, hey Gramps." Makarov awoke suddenly, startled by my voice. Mira smiled and waved.

"What brings you to the guild at this hour? Shouldn't you be at home either training or sleeping?" yawned Makarov contagiously, to which I yawned in response.

"S-stop...uuaaarrgh... you're making me tired. I need to stay awake as much as possible because I'm heading out."

"Where? Are you taking a request at this hour? You should get some rest," suggested Mirajane.

I shook my head. "No, that's not it. I'm traveling back home to visit my mother, and also handle some other matters. I'll be back next week, though. Maybe Thursday." It was currently Tuesday, so I calculated that I'd be gone for about 8 days.

"Do you want anything to take with you?" offered Mira.

"A cookie. A few, even. I haven't eaten in two days because I was fasting, but I don't need too much. Also, I haven't had anything necessarily good, only what's adequate." While I spoke, Mira wrapped up some cookies in a little napkin or something. "Thank you."

"My pleasure," she smiled. "If you ever need anything, just ask. I'm more than happy to aid you in any way I can. Good luck out there!" And seeing how Makarov had dozed off, she added, "Go for it bad boy!" which made my jaw almost ache from smiling so wide.

Fearow was waiting outside again, with a seriously determined look on his face.

"Fearow."

"Yeah. It's gonna be a long journey. It should take a few days to get there. How long do you think you can fly for?"

"Fearow... Fear Fearow, Fearow." _"I dunno... if I really give it my all, 9 hours."_

"Wow. That's pretty good. I guess some of the training rubbed off on you, huh?" I joked.

"Fearow," he deadpanned. _"Yeah, sure."_

"Okay, Mr. Serious. You have enough energy to stay awake?" Nod. "Alright. Let's go." I climbed on his back, and Fearow shot off high into the starry sky above until Magnolia gradually turned into dim lights in the distance. Fearow began flying full speed above the breathtaking moonlit cloud layer in which he would've froze, but because of my body heat, he was able to stay warm, especially with wind blowing constantly in his face.

"Fearow! I'll give you an extra boost!" I shouted. He kept looking forward, but I saw him nod in consent. Using Flare Beam in both hands, I was able to incredibly boost Fearow's flight speed to speeds over 150 mph. I ducked down low and Fearow kept his wings straight as we streaked across the sky like a grand comet, leaving a bright flaming tail.

I'll never forget the beautiful lumious moon guiding us that night.

xxxx

"Fearow! Keep flying in one direction!" I shouted as Fearow cut through an icy cloud layer, so thick that I could barely see Fearow in front of me. "We might make it through!" And as those words bellowed from my air-dried mouth, we came into a clearing, a familiar, blizzard-battered white mountain above the clouds, yet with more clouds above, blocking out the sunlight and making the sky darker.

"Huh? I feel like I know this place, but from where?" I mumbled to myself. Fearow landed on the snowy terrain, his quick heart pumping audibly amongst the familiar howl of a cold, forsaken mountain. "Fearow, stay alert. I have a peculiar feeling about this place." The summit was wide, almost like a stadium. I couldn't place where I had seen it though...

From behind me, a maniacal, bloodthirsty cackle followed by the bone-chilling sound of a bladed arm penetrating the chest off my beloved Fearow answered my question. I turned to see Fearow's limp body fall to the ground, blood spilling out of his wound profusely.

"Fearow...!" As I caught his body in mid fall, I knew exactly who had caused this. I turned around angrily, morphing my steel arm into a blade shape and standing in a defense position. Hearing a rushing sound from behind me, I whipped around, only to see _him_ again. Elementia. He was still just a shadowy figure, so I didn't know what he looked like.

"Gotten stronger, have you? Oh, you're confused, no?" He gestured to the snowy arena. I sharpened my arm and dived in towards him, but he teleported away quickly and appeared behind me, kicking me into the snow. I hastily got up and saw that he wasn't dashing after me just yet, despite him kicking me in the ass.

"This is the same mountain as before, only now, it's the summit," he explained.

"This is nothing but a dream, and I know it! This is too vivid, but I don't know why..."

"Hahaha... fool. Wasting time wondering why you _think_ you're having a dream, or vision, or what have you."

I stopped, not letting my guard down, but thinking. "Why, though? Why are you doing this? I know it's not because you're training me, one, you're wouldn't be that kind, and two, I can train myself, thank you very much. You're obviously not trying to kill me, because you can't kill me in a dream."

"Yes and no. While even _my_ Magic has limits..." he bragged. "... I cannot kill you within a dream. Mind you, I'd love to, if I could find out how. However, you were right about one thing." He grinned evilly, drooling blood from his razor sharp teeth. "I _am_ trying to kill you."

"I'm afraid I can't let you do that, douchebag. I don't care about your morals, your goals, all bullshit. But I can't let one thing slide." Red hot flames blazed in my eyes as I glared vengefully at Elementia, whose grin was the pure definition of malevolence.

"You murdered my father." A low cackle escaped his jaws, followed by a crazed, demonic howl of laughter.

"And what do you plan on doing about it?" taunted Elementia. "To avenge your poor, pathetic excuse for a father? It's not like you're any better than even half a fraction of him. He couldn't even land an attack on me, if he even tried at all. What a joke. And you, maggot, think you can defeat the mighty Elementia? You're pathetic."

"Yeah? YEAH? You wanna make a bet?!" I yelled. _Wait! He's trying to aggravate me, to test me. If it works, he'll know my weakness and possibly use it against me! But how would he use it against me? Either way, I gotta learn to control my temper._ Elementia lowered his head down and continued to taunt me.

"You're just a puny little bug! I could squash you without even trying! It's like snapping a twig in half, or not even! You puny bug! Why are you _bug_ ging me? Huh? Why are you just standing there? Did I hurt your feelings? Aww, I feel no remorse! You're just like your father, all dead and gone, rotted away as I trample all over him! He never wanted to fight back! He never had the courage to! He was so dumb, he fell for- oh, I'm sorry! I don't wanna _spoil_ anything for you! After all, who cares about your stupid dead father or- Blaurgh!" Controlling my anger, I swiftly uppercutted Elementia in the jaw, causing him to stagger back a little.

"There. I landed an attack on you. Now shut the fuck up." Elementia held his jaw, glaring angrily.

"Even if you do attack me, I can regenerate. You may call me overpowered, but it just shows how great I truly am. After all, I'm The Great Elementia! No one, not even you can defeat me! Ahahaha! Mwahahahaha! And what are you? What do you even want to be? Who the hell do you think you are?" I didn't hesitate to respond as a grin appeared on my face.

"A Legend, stronger than you could ever be." Immediately, we dashed at each other with our own attacks, adrenaline pumping, the Magic Energy resonating within each of us more than ever before-

"*Gasp!*" I jolted upwards, to see that Fearow was still flying, and the dawn was rising up over the horizon like a majestic god. I looked around, not seeing a mountain, and seeing that Fearow was alright.

"Fearow?" called Fearow over the wind. _"You alright?"_

"Yeah. I'm fine. I had a... dream." I hesitated, worried about telling Fearow about the terrible "dream" I had just awoken from.

"Fear Fearow! Fearow Fear, Fearow!" shouted Fearow. _"I've been flying all night! I have a good sense of direction, so we should get there by tomorrow, or even tonight if I push myself!"_

"That's good news! How fast do you think we're flying?" I replied.

"Fearow, Fearow Fear! Fearow Fearow!" _"When you boosted my flight, I must've been flying at almost 200! I think we're going half of that right now!"_

"Well, I see no need to stop, so if I boost us, we may get there around noon!" I shouted.

"Fearow Fear!" he called hopefully. _"Soon I'll finally have the comfort of a Pokéball again!"_ I hoped so too.

xxxx

"We have a few minutes, so we can stop and eat something real quick," I said to Fearow as we traveled into a small town along the way. It was almost noon and we were more than halfway home, so my prediction may have been true. Fearow and I walked into town, exhausted, so we needed a break. A few townsfolk looked at us, some greeted or simply nodded hello, but it was clear that I was the odd one out because I was walking around with an oversized bird, not to mention that I looked shady enough with my leather jacket and fedora.

I had Summoned my Pokémon so they could eat too, and we ended up eating at a noodle stand. Mewtwo, Breloom, Pikachu and I sat at the stand while I taught them how to use chopsticks. Surprisingly, Pikachu was pretty good with chopsticks, considering how small his hands are. Mewtwo had a harder time, and Breloom had the most trouble and eventually gave up and lifted the bowl to his mouth to down the soup, making us crack up when he slurped the noodles too fast and choked. Gyarados, Fearow and Tyranitar had to sit on the ground and eat, to which they were perfectly fine with. Gyarados having no hands at all, slurped the soup much like Breloom had, but with the bowl on the ground. Tyranitar was too big for the seat and had to sit on the ground. He tried using the chopsticks to no avail, as his arms were too short. Fearow had to eat the same way as Gyarados, but it was easier for him since he wasn't as big as Gyarados.

I paid for the meal afterward and noticed that the stand took Jewel, which was surprising but I assumed that we were still in Earthland or at least some bordering country. Fearow still had to fly over a whole ocean to get to the Pokémon Regions continent, so it was going to take a lot longer than I thought.

xxxx

"I can't...uuurrgh... fall asleep again..." I groaned as I started to nod off, the sound of the wind becoming an echo in my ears, sounding far away. The sky had turned dark and the sun had set over the ocean horizon, the stars illuminating the water below and the few clouds above.

"Fear! Fearow!" shouted Fearow. _"Hey! Stay awake!"_ Fearow's cry was enough to at least startle me awake, but I refused to open my eyes. "Fear Fearow! Fearow Fear Fearow!" _"Guess what's coming up! Open your eyes and look!"_ I did as he told, and as I opened my drooping eyes, the sight of the brilliant lights of familiar cities came into view. What lay ahead were the familiar sights of my home continent, the place of my early journeys. I was home. And in only two days at that, when the journey before had taken almost a year.

Fearow flew over the Hoenn Region, above even Mt. Pyre. The region was the southern island of the rest of the big continent, with another landmass north of Hoenn containing the Unova and Kalos Regions. East of Hoenn, which was the way we flew, was the two connected regions of Johto and Kanto, with the colossal Mt. Silver separating the two. It reminded me of Red, what he was doing after I had battled him, almost two years ago. Flying up north took quite a while, even while boosting. I tried not to fall asleep on the way, but I couldn't help but close my eyes for a few minutes. When I opened them again, the distant lights of Sinnoh started to come closer into view, the great towering Mt. Coronet parting East Sinnoh and West Sinnoh.

Fearow was getting tired, but still gave it his all as we flew to the brightly illuminated Jubilife City. In a few minutes, Fearow had touched down near the Pokemon Center and we started making our way back to Sandgem Townand eventually Twinleaf Town. The sky was a pitch black now, save from the few stars that lit up the clouds above. The city was bright, the overhead streetlights ushered us out of the city and back to Route 202. I was too tired to even think, and I even ran into a tree which at least startled me awake, keeping my eyes open until I reached Route 201, and soon Twinleaf Town. I Summoned my Pokegear to check the time, and the little dim digital clock read 12:56. Maybe a bit too late, but I didn't care, all I cared about was that I was home, and I would be able to see my mom again.

Knock knock knock! Three knocks, not too loud, but loud enough for her to possibly hear. Then five seconds later, the door opened. I don't know why, but I half expected someone else to open the door as if mom really had been killed and it wasn't just a dream. Luckily, she did answer the door, and by the look on her face, it looked as if she were half expecting me. Once she saw it was me, she let out all her emotions; her eyes immediately became like faucets and she embraced me so hard that I almost forgot that she had steel bones as well. I wrapped my arms around her, bending down a little because I had gotten pretty tall. I rested my head on her shoulder and smiled.

"I'm home, mom," I whispered.

"I missed you so much, honey. I bet you're tired, though. Why don't you get some sleep, and you can tell me about your adventures tomorrow, okay?" she said.

"Okay. Good night mom, love you."

"Love you too."

xxxx

I awoke to the familiar, nostalgic sound of the morning Starly chirping in the trees, the fresh pine smell of new beginnings long ago. I sat up in bed with a pair of shorts on, my bare chest exposed to the morning air. I remembered unpacking the previous night, so I rummaged through my dresser and pulled on a t shirt. With a dry, foul tasting mouth, I washed out my mouth in the bathroom and made my way downstairs. Mom wasn't downstairs yet, so I decided to take a walk outside. Outside, the air was cloaked in a light mist, and the sun was blocked out by the right amount of clouds above. I decided to take a walk to my dad's grave, with the idea that his spirit might appear.

Through the clearing in the trees, I walked around Lake Verity to the other side where Dad's grave was. From a distance, the grave looked as it always did, lifeless and stagnant, but when I got closer, a blue flame lit up by my presence, clearing away the mist almost instantly. I touched the flame just as I had that one night a year and a half ago and the flame expanded and grew, taking the form of my dad.

"Vincent?" he spoke in his deep voice.

"Hey dad," I responded with a smile on my face. Dad smiled back, and leaned forward to hug me. I was a bit taken aback by this sudden revelation.

"Woah, you're able to touch me?" I figured that since he was a spirit, he would phase right through me, but this wasn't the case.

"You were able to touch the fire, correct? Then you're able to touch me, and I can feel it just as you can touch me," he explained. Then he smiled and held out his arms. "Now come here and give your father a big hug." I didn't hesitate, and I embraced him tightly.

"Easy there, I don't have steel bones like you and your mother, remember?" he laughed. "Goodness! You've grown up so much since our last meeting, and it looks like you've been packing on some muscle. How've you been? How's the magic coming along?"

"It's getting stronger. I can use Destroy/Summon, Drain, and Switch."

"Already? Wow, you learn pretty fast. But you must remember, it's not about filling in gaps or just harnessing and utilizing the magic. It's about being one with your energy. Not just your Magic Energy either. You must become a source of energy. Much like your Fire Arts."

"Oh yeah, I almost forgot about my Fire Arts. Speaking of, why is it so weak? It's like, I travel to Fiore where I'm exposed to so much energy, Magic Energy, and all my magic is stronger than both my Fire and Steel Arts combined. What's with it? Why is it so weak? Why am I so weak?"

"That you must answer on your own. It's your power, so therefore, you need to see it. Just like I did. I needed help from no one, and I became balanced."

"What does that even mean? It's so cryptic, it's making my brain hurt. I don't... understand."

"Then you will never understand why you're 'weak'. It's not my duty to tell you, because my duty is to guide you along, not do the work for you."

"Obviously, but you can't even hint me about what I should do?"

"I've already hinted you, now you need to figure out what you need to do." There was a moment of silence, then Dad rejuvinated the conversation. "So, how've you been keeping up? How's your mother doing?"

"Why not ask her yourself? The house isn't that far from here, only like a 4 minute walk or so."

"I can't do that. For one, I can only appear before you, and I can't see her again. It would only remind her."

"Remind her of what? And why can you only appear when I'm here?" I asked.

"Oh, never mind. Just don't let her know, unless she sees it for herself."

"But why can-"

"Enough with the questions! I can't answer them for you, so stop asking."

"Well, there's one question that I won't know the answer to unless I ask you."

"What is it?" I hesitated, as if the question would almost seem insulting.

"Dad, why didn't you kill Elementia?" Out of all the questions I could've asked him, he wasn't expecting this. A dark look grew in his eye.

"I once knew him. I couldn't bring myself to hurt him. After all, we used to be friends. We were the best of friends."

I couldn't believe what I was hearing. Elementia, Dad's friend?

"His name was Joshua, and he was a skilled mage and fighter. When I traveled to Earthland, I met him and asked him to teach me how to fight. He trained me in the ways of combat, and he was a great teacher even though he was younger than me. This was a time when he wasn't crazy, when he was a normal person. I wonder wher time went."

"You should be wondering what the hell happened to him!" I shouted.

"Language, young man." Oh. I'd forgotten that he was still my dad, spirit or not. "We formed a team and traveled together, even joining a guild called Dragonaut Fang. That was before I joined Fairy Tail. It really did fit, since I was a dragon, and he used Dragon Slayer Magic."

"Woah, seriously? What kind?"

"All kinds. He used more than one type of magic, and he was a Multi-Caster, like me. I had the Book of Magic that could allow me to cast multiple types of magic. Speaking of, I sense it within your possession, the book. May I see it?" I Summoned the Book and he flipped through the pages that I had already. "So Kaby really kept it safe all these years... thank you Kaby..." Ne hugged the book close to his chest before returning it to me. "Well considering that I'm dead now, this is your book now, not mine. Did you see the few spells I left for you? I tried getting rid of the spells because Elementia was out on the hunt for this book because he learned to read it. I never should've taught him how to read the ancient langueage, I'm so stupid. Never should've trusted the lying bastard. But I blame it on myself for teaching him how to read it. If only I knew he was gonna come after the Legion, if only I knew what was going through his crazy mind.

"But anyway. You may be wondering, how did I know that you were going to visit his house based on a quest and he would realize that you were from Fairy Tail and hand over the book to you? It seems like a coincidence, but I planned it out greatly during the downfall of the Charizard Legion. To put it simply, I used a Prediction Spell. I also knew that I could trust Kaby, so I entrusted the book to him."

I took a moment to breathe the story in, but another thing was bouncing around, or rather, a few other things. I told him about thhe two dreams I had, and he seemed to calculate it in his head.

"I'm surprised he hasn't found out until now. I think it has to do with the enchantment I put around Twinleaf Town. Ahead of time during the downfall, I surrounded Twinleaf Town with a Safeguarding Spell, or as I liked to call it, the Anti-Skull Spell. Elementia sent his 'army' after your mother after they killed me, and she traveled to Sinnoh and has been in hiding ever since. A friend of mine saved her life, a Drifloon who I had saved from Team Rocket. She returned the favor, and I thank her for it."

"I had a dream about her saving Mom a few years ago, when I journeyed through Sinnoh. I never knew why the dream occured so suddenly, though."

Dad continued his story, teling me how Elementia had gone crazy and wanted to achieve world domination. He tried eradicating any forces who could potentially stop him, and that's when he turned to the Legion and wiped them out. Apparently, Elementia's current whereabouts were unknown, but it was known to me that he knew about me, and he was gradually gaining power. The only thing I didn't understand was how he even knew about my existence in the first place. Only time would tell.

"Well, I should be off now, and so should you. I don't know what Elementia is planning, but let's hope we can defeat him, okay?" he encouraged.

"Yes. I will do it. For me, for you, for the whole world." I started to walk away, but Dad had one more thing to say.

"Oh, I almost forgot. Vincent. do you know about the mythical Pokémon?"

"I know of it, but I don't know too much about it. Why?"

"If you want to truly manifest your power, you should find the Legendary Pokémon of each region. Their energy combined will make you stronger. You mustn't catch them, however, as their power is only pure when they are free. Once caught, they will no longer be rendered Legendary. Find each of them, and they will grant you power."

"What about the Alola Region?" I asked.

"With Team Skull at stake, you'd be risking your life. It's best to stay away from them. You may even encounter them in these Regions as well, considering the fact that Elementia knows you exsist." Drifting away into the wind, he called out, "Good luck!"

I had a busy week ahead of me.


	38. Chapter 38: The Myths

**Disclaimer: I don't own the rights to the song "Lose Yourself" by Eminem. I didn't write it. All credit goes to Eminem. Seriously, people should know this by now.**

I soon realized that whenever I stopped by home, it was never for too long, and it made me feel bad. It's not like I was trying to avoid home, don't get me wrong, I missed home like hell. But my focus was mainly on eradicating evil in the world, starting with evil demons and monsters, and eventually Elementia himself.

Thinking about what Dad told me about the Mythical Pokémon, I knew of a few places to look: Spear Pillar on Mt. Coronet, and each of the three lakes. I remember the fourth lake, the Sendoff Spring, but I remember already catching Giratina, so that was out. Then that reminded me, I had caught Giratina. If I had caught it (wasn't too sure of its gender, like the other Mythical Pokémon), then I couldn't draw any or as much power from it. I decided that I would release it, unsure that that would restore its power again. I also had no idea about the other Mythical Pokémon, but I figured I would find out about it as I went along. I went home first; told Mom I was going out for a while.

"That's fine, as long as you're back for dinner. I'm making pork bone stew for dinner, so you should be back by then," she noted.

"Awesome! Alright, I'll be back later. What time?"

"Around 7:00 is when I think it'll be done. Oh, that reminds me! Hold on, I need to get something." Mom then hurried upstairs and returned a few seconds later with a little box.

"Open it!" she exclaimed. I opened up the flaps of the cardboard box to find another little box, white, sitting at the bottom. I took the box out and opened it up to find a screen peering out.

"Happy early birthday, sweetie! I got this for your birthday yesterday. You were sleeping, so I went to Jubilife to a store that opened up a year ago and got you this phone! It's the latest phone, IGear, a step up from the Pokégear they mass-produced in Johto. Engineers at Silph Co. in Kanto created the IGear as a smartphone for trainers, adults, kids, anyone. I haven't gotten one yet, but I got this for you."

Turning the phone on with a button on the side, the screen lit up and it read "Hello" on the screen. "Thanks Mom. I bet it wasn't cheap, so thank you."

Leaving the house, I called Fearow who had been sleeping outside. Hey, don't look at me as some bad trainer, he chose to sleep outside. Fearow got up and stretched a little, and I told him to fly us to Jubilife City.

"I'll replace your Pokéball today! You can finally stop bugging and patronizing me about it!" I called. Fearow simply rolled his eyes as we landed in front of the Pokémon Center. I entered and went for the PC. I started to withdraw Giratina from my PC, but I noticed and realized that not only did I catch Giratina, but also Ho-oh and Lugia. Thank god I didn't catch any other Mythical Pokémon, otherwise I would've had a harder time.

Which was only what I _thought._

I took Ho-oh, Lugia, and Giratina up to Route 204 and released them. They were confused as to why they had suddenly been summoned, but I told them I was setting them free. Taking me into consideration, they shook their heads and refused to go anywhere. I withdrew them again, confused beyond reason. What the hell was I supposed to do?

The only thing _to_ do was to see the great Pokémon Professor, Professor Oak.

xxxx

Fearow landed in Pallet Town in front of Oak's lab, and we entered to see Elm and Oak talking, presumably about sciency shit.

"Oh! Can it be? It's you! Vinny!" exclaimed Oak who came up to me, Elm beside him.

"Good to see you again, Vincent!" greeted Elm, his hand outstretched to which I accepted.

"Oak, I have something I need to talk about," I addressed.

Oak considered this. "Well, great seeing you again, Elm. Hope we can meet up again, continue our studies! Goodbye now!" Oak waved goodbye to Elm who had exited the lab in rather a hurry. Oak turned back to me. "What did you want to talk about?"

"It's about the Mythical Pokémon I've caught three, of which they are Giratina, Ho-oh, and Lugia." As I spoke, I Summoned the Pokéballs in order as I named them.

"Wow! What's this? I've never seen anything quite like this in a Pokémon! I didn't know that Psychic types could do that. Then again, I don't know that you're a Psychic type... How did you do that?" he said, noting my Dimension Magic.

"It's Magic." I said genuinely.

"No, seriously." I'd forgotten he didn't understand what Magic was.

"Have you heard of the continents of the west? There is a continent called Earthland. I traveled to the west to grow stronger, and I was exposed to something called Magic Energy. Have you not heard of this?" I explained.

"This is something beyond my studies, something I've never gotten into. Pokémon have their own typings, and they have certain qualities to them that help them adapt and survive. While I have heard of the western countries, I've never heard of any Pokémon in those continents. Anything past the Great Pokémon Sea, I have no knowledge of."

"But back to the subject, you must have knowledge on releasing Pokémon , right?"

Oak nodded his head. "Yes, releasing Pokémon is nothing too complicated, all you have to do is either destroy the Pokéball to free them, or release them through a PC system at a Pokémon Center. I also happen to have one here, because it's a part of my studies."

Remembering Fearow's Pokéball was thrown down the ravine, I decided to bring up the subject. "What would happen if the Pokéball was destroyed? With or without the Pokémon inside?"

"With or without the Pokémon inside the ball differs. With the Pokémon inside, it doesn't harm the Pokémon , just simply sets them free with no recollection of their trainer or anything that happened within the time of them being caught. With the Pokémon outside the Pokéball, they may experience memory loss, nothing too major, but they are freed. The difference is that the Pokémon will forget their trainer entirely if the Pokéball is destroyed while still containing the Pokémon . The other has a chance of memeory loss, but it depends on the Pokémon ."

This got me thinking. "Fearow, you didn't have any memory loss when the Pokéball fell in the ravine, did you?" I asked Fearow, who was picking at his feathers.

"Fear... Fearow Fear. Fearow Fearow." _Uh... I don't recall memory loss. I was fainted, I think._

"What did he say?" asked Oak, intrigued.

"He doesn't recall any memory loss. Pretty ironic. I don't think Fearow's ball was completely destroyed even after a fall from a ravine edge, because Pokéballs are pretty sturdy. That means that his ball still exists, but I really don't wanna go down into the ravine," I formulated. "That begs the question, however. Are you able to replace a Pokéball? What would happen if he inhabited a new Pokéball?"

"Nothing. He simply moves into a new Pokéball and that's it. But considering the other Pokéball may still be intact, whatever you did with it, this may be a lot harder than it needs to be. Transferring the Pokémon over will nullify the other Pokéball and render it useless, but your Fearow may risk losing all of his memories of you and of his pre-evolution state. I can do it, but it will be difficult. Fearow may not obey you after this. I ask you, do you accept this fact?" asked Professor Oak very seriously.

Risk losing Fearow? My buddy, the very first Pokémon I ever caught? I didn't want to lose Fearow and have him revert back to before he knew me, all the battles, the years of Pokémon training, my other Pokémon whom he had become best friends with? I also didn't want to search for the other Pokéball, and I didn't want Fearow to not have a Pokéball to rest in. Even Fearow told me that it was cozy and more comfortable than resting ouside of the Pokéball, and could even save him from dying. I had heard of a heal ball that specialized in healing a Pokémon once withdrawn, but all Fearow needed was a simple Pokéball. I wanted this for Fearow, for his benefit.

"Yes. I accept." Oak nodded his head slowly.

"Very well. Follow me, over here." He led me to a healing table, like the ones they have at Pokémon Centers and worked with something on his computer that activated the table, which lit up and made some sounds.

"Do you have a different Pokéball?" asked Professor Oak. I shook my head. "I don't have any here, either."

"I'll fly over to Viridian real quick and get one. I'll be back. C'mon, Fearow!" Fearow followed as I ran out of the lab, and with completely unintentional style, Fearow swooped in underneath me, catching me by surprise but yet I didn't topple over. I swear it was totally unintended, hence my surprise.

As we flew, I spoke quietly to Fearow.

"Fearow. I'm worried." Fearow didn't respond, but I knew he understood based on a small, slow nod. He was worried that he'd forget me too, and why wouldn't he?

Heading back to the lab with a new Pokéball filled me with, not just sadness, but a great emptiness. Then, I suddenly realized that it was the same kind of emptiness I felt after becoming the Pokémon Champion, after that one day years ago when Jupiter of Galactic asked me that question, "What good would avenging your father do you?" and most recently during my training. I didn't know what this feeling meant, why I had felt it so many times. Maybe it was some adventure I was seeking, but that didn't seem right, as I had plenty of adventure while training. Still, that thought stuck with me; _I'm becoming stronger, but like I'm missing something. What could that be?_

My train of thought was interrupted as I walked into the lab. Oak waited patiently, computer system at the ready. He insturcted me to encapsulate Fearow in the ball, to which Fearow hesitated.

"Fearow... Fearow Fear Fearow?" _Vincent, what'll happen if I forget you?_ He tried to fight back tears, not that I even knew he could cry.

"I... don't know. All I can say is, you've been brilliant. Although not perfect, you've certainly strived for it. Your memories... even if there's a slight chance that you'll retain your memories, the risk is still too great, but you can't go without a Pokéball. Fearow... if you forget me, just know that it's been great training with you."

Now tears _were_ actually streaming down his beak. "Fear Fearow Fearow," he spoke bravely. _As it has been with you too._ We stood kind of awkwardly for a second, but we eventually closed into a bro-hug, knowing that we might not know each other very soon. But Fearow, with one last cry, "Fearoow!" ( _I'm ready_ ) he pecked the Pokéball and disappeared in a ray of white light. I picked up the ball and set it into a spot in the table, and Oak started the machine.

"First, I must locate the original Pokéball. That way, the Pokéball will become null and unusable. I need your trainer ID so I can access your PC." I gave him a set of numbers that he typed into the computer. "Good. Now I need to find the Pokéball in the system used to catch Fearow, and cancel it. Then I need to use this machine to 'assign' Fearow to the current ball, and this is where the memory loss part comes in. Fearow is turned into data, and despite being a living creature, while he is within the Pokéball, the Pokéball can label him as data and send him through the machine."

"Will he be okay though?" I asked worriedly.

"He will come out Okay, but remember that there is the high chance of memory loss at stake. One miscalculation will not kill him, but rid him of his memories. That's why I will need immense concentration. If this works, and your Fearow retains his memories, then this will be a major breakthrough in Pokémon research. This has never been done before, so if this succeeds, this will be something major."

Oak started typing, going through my PC info, doing all that he described. Then the table began to glow in the area containing Fearow's Pokéball, then a strip of light shot out from the Pokéball and ran through the table up to the computer. Oak began typing madly fast, constantly looking down and up at the keyboard and the screen. Text scrolled across the screen very quickly, and Oak's fingers became a blur, surprising for his age. I honestly had no idea how old he was. I didn't ccare about that at the moment, though, because every ounce of me was focused and worried about Fearow and his outcome. What would become of him?

Then suddenly, the strip of light shot back through the table and into the Pokéball again, Oak backed off from the computer breathing heavily, wiping beads of sweat from his forehead.

"It is finished," he gasped, drawing in slow, heavy breaths of air. I took the ball from the table and held it tight in my hand, praying that he would still be okay. I tossed the ball onto the floor, causing it to roll around until it was straight up, then a brilliant white light emitted from the opened Pokéball, taking shape, the form of Fearow. I don't care how lame it may have been to have such a common Pokémon as a starter, he was my first Pokémon ever, the one who grew with me the most through all the years, the one who guided me, trained me, the one I trained the most, was risked with losing all his memories of himself, of me, of all my Pokémon .

But there he stood, looking around like a regular bird, with a confused look, the emptiest eyes I had ever seen.

"No..." I whispered, almost convinced that he was gone.

He cocked his head two ways. "...Fearow!" This I didn't understand. A chill ran through my body, and I knew that he was gone. The shivers turned to my stomach which churned in a way that you're about to cry. The hidden tears I covered with my hand that made me look exasperated, but my mouth trembled with the worst kind of sadness, my teeth clenched, as if I had witnessed my father's death.

"God dammit..." was all I could mutter at the moment.

"I-I- there couldn't have been a miscalculation! I was confident I got it right! No... this can't be!" doubted Oak.

"Well, you still messed up, didn't you?!" was what I wanted to yell, but I couldn't say that to him, let alone find words to speak.

When I could finally speak, I let out a broken sigh that you could hear the tears in. "Fearow... I... even though you don't know me, or know what I'm saying, I want you to know that you're brilliant. You're the greatest Fearow ever. Even if we have to start over from the beginning, know that we're still best buds, no matter what." I looked over at him, and he had his beak underneath his wing, cleaning himself like a regular old bird, not even listening to a word I said... wait, it didn't look like he was cleaning himself. It looked like a few days ago when we were laughing our asses off from being unserious, when he tried hiding his laughter.

"Fearow? Wait..."

"Gwahahahaha! Feeheerohohoho!" Fearow had fallen to the floor, dying in great peals of laughter, slapping his wing against his chest.

"Fearow Fear, Fearow Fearow!" _You should've seen yourself, crying like a little baby!_ With that, he exploded into another fit of laughter, laughing until I thought his lungs would burst.

"So you were just faking it? You're memory isn't gone?"

"Fear, Fearow." _Nope, just kidding, it's gone._

I tried keeping a straight face, but I didn't know whether to be pissed or happy and laughing with him.

I failed at keeping a straight face.

"I hate you," I joked, cracking up as well, which soon tuned into me laughing so hard that tears poured out of my eyes, tears of both laughing and happiness. Oak chuckled at our childlike behavior, and once we were done with our laughing fit, I thanked Professor Oak and we left. With the knowledge I currently had, all hope of gaining energy from the Mythical Pokémon I caught was not lost.

xxxx

Fearow and I had flown over to Ecruteak City to the Pokemon Center. In the Pokémon Center, I had withdrawn Lugia and Ho-oh again. Not wanting to be seen in the public's eye, I flew up to the top of Tin Tower and once there, I crushed Ho-oh's Pokéball in my fist which was easier than I had originally thought. Ho-oh flew out of a ray of white light and circled around the spire. It sensed my prescence and possibly the amount of energy within me, and released a blue orb of energy, much like the ones I obtained from defeating monsters, except this one was much smaller. I thanked Ho-oh, and then it flew off into oblivion, becoming but a legend once again.

Our next destination was Whirl Islands. Not wanting to go into the caves, I stood outside, crushing Lugia's Pokéball much like I had with Ho-oh's. Lugia sensed my energy, granting me an orb and then performing a loop in the air, diving into the water with style. Energy and a show! Bravo!

Checking my phone, I saw that it was 6:43. Lucky I thought to check the time, otherwise I would've completely forgotten about dinner. Or my stomach would've reminded me. I tried to Dimension Switch back home, but then I realized that the only location I had set it to was my house back in Magnolia.

"C'mon, Fearow! We gotta get home!" I called out Fearow, who flew around and caught me in the air as I jumped. Using my fire, I boosted our flight speed making us fly faster, and before we knew it, we had reached home right on time. As if on cue, mom had brought a steaming pot over to the table, placing bowls in each of our places and plates of hot white rice.

"Thanks for the food!" I exclaimed as I sat down. Mom lifted up the pot lid, releasing an explosion of steam and the spicy aroma of pork stew. Mom dished out soup to each of our bowls and sat down to eat.

"So how was today, sweetie? What'd you do?" asked Mom.

"I traveled to Kanto today. I spoke with Professor Oak about replacing Pokéballs."

"Wow, Kanto? That's pretty far. Last time I was in Kanto was years ago-" She paused midsentence with a horrified look on her face, then her cheeks began to tremble as her face slowly morphed into loneliness mixed with sadness trying to outmatch each other as salty tears ran down her face into a puddle on the table.

I had no idea what had come over her, why just thinking about Kanto would make her spontaneously break down. A mixture of short sobs and wails escaped her mouth covered by her hands as she continued to weep uncontrollably. I stood up and moved to her side of the table, embracing her comfortingly in my arms as I tried to figure out why she began crying at the mention of Kanto.

Then it hit me; I've never known her to cry, only once before. That one time was 7 years ago when she told me the truth of dad's death. Could it be that she was crying at the moment because of him? I didn't want to ask why to avoid hurting her even more, but I wanted to help her, so I saw no other option.

"Mom, are you okay? Why did you start crying all of a sudden?" I asked calmly.

"I can't help it...! Whenever I think of Kanto, all I remember is them! I get these sudden flashbacks of them hunting us down, your father and I, and the only thing I can think of is your father's tortured screams as they slowly murdered him. The memories haunt me to this day...!" The bawling grew more intense as she cried into her sleeve, and I couldn't help but shed a tear as well. This was my father we were talking about, the one I was trying to avenge, to gain justice for. No one kills my father and gets away with it.

Even if they're the strongest, most self righteous asshole in the world.

xxxx

We had finished dinner in silence that night, and for the rest of the evening, I tried to understand the whole picture, wondering why they had gone after Mom too. I didn't feel like it was appropriate to share the rest of the day's events, so I kept to myself and focused on comforting Mom instead.

Mom had told me that they named me Vincent because they wanted me to grow up to become strong and victorious, as my name means 'victory'. Really, it actually means a 'victorious leader', but who was I leading? I guess I was a leader of myself, that I was leading myself. It kinda makes sense in a way.

I woke up to a cold, snowy day, with ice crystals forming on the windows and white snowflakes drifting down from the stratosphere. It was a wild, white wonderland worth waking up to. I couldn't stay in bed for long, though, so I decided to go out for the day. With a quick goodbye hug from Mom, I was out the door into the cold climate. Even with above average body heat, I still had to zip up my jacket and Summon my scarf. It was pretty goddamn cold.

I remembered that I still had to release Giritina, who was in my PC, so that was first on my list. For the day, I decided to go visit the cities of my first journey, the cities and towns of Sinnoh still forever existing within my long-term memory. I decided I would go pay the fellow Gym Leaders all a visit and possibly the Elite Four as well, as it had been a long time since I had seen, well, anyone from home. At that thought, some of thee empty feeling went away. It was satisfying, but I didn't know why.

First, I stopped by the Pokémon Center in Jubilife to withdraw Giratina. I hesitated before destroying the Pokéball, realizing that it was a Master Ball, and probably very rare. But then I thought, _Eh, who cares about a ball that can catch any Pokémon ? It's not like they lost the blueprints on how to make it, so why not make another one?_ And with that thought, I crushed the ball in my hand, releasing Giratina before me, completely wiped of its memories from the time I caught it. Sensing my energy much like Ho-oh and Lugia had, it granted me a blue energy orb, a blessing from a Mythical Pokémon . It nodded as if saying, "I want to help you too," then opened up a distorted portal to the Distortion World, disappearing before my eyes.

Afterwards, I traveled to the different cities, first Oreburgh. Roark didn't recognize me at first, but after reminding him of 7 years ago, he greeted me as an old friend and asked me how I've been. I asked him the same after responding, telling him how far I've come. I thanked him for giving me so much great advice, how it lead to me catching my first Pokémon , Fearow. It seemed like a challenger wanted to take on the gym, so I bid Roark farewell and headed on my way to Eterna.

I greeted Gardenia, refreshing her memory on when we had battled. We had a light conversation and a quick battle just to see the strength of my Pokémon , then she bade me farewell as Roark had done.

All the rest of my visits went much of the same, especially when I got to Volkner, once he knew it was me, he thanked me for lighting him up again, then we had another battle just for the fun of it.

Through revisiting the region, I was able to encounter some other Mythical Pokémon . At each of the lakes, (not counting Sendoff Spring) I met the beings of emotion, Azelf, Mespirit, and Uxie, which they granted me three energy orbs. Then in Canalave, I heard a tale of a boy down by the harbor area who had fallen into a deep sleep and could only be woken by a Lunar Wing, which could only be obtained by the Mythical Lunar Pokémon Cresselia. A sailor by the harbor knew the location of Cresselia, on a little island called Fullmoon Island. On the island, I was able to encounter Cresselia who granted me an energy orb and the Lunar Wing. Taking the wing back to the house, I was able to revive the boy, who told me in secret the the reason he fell asleep was because of the Mythical Darkness Pokémon , Darkrai. He told me there was something odd going on with the house behind the Pokémon Center and that I should go check it out. The boy was right, because if I wasn't able to open the door before, then it was as if the house was waiting for me. I entered the house, and an odd man stood inside, awaiting my arrival. I don't remember what happened after that, because I have a theory that he sedated or drugged me or something. When I woke up, it turned out that I was on an island opposite of Fullmoon Island, Newmoon Island. Within the island, I met Darkrai, who made me battle it first, then it granted me an energy orb. Damn, that Pokémon put up a fight.

When I went to go greet Byron, it turned out that he wasn't there. The sailor by the harbor granted me access to Iron Island, where Byron went to train sometimes. I found him there, and he told me of a strange energy coming from within the island caverns. In the cave, I fought some trainers who also turned out to be workers mining for iron, but the energy was coming from deeper inside the cave. There lay an entrance to another room, where there was a statue with a certain dotted pattern on its face and some tiles on the floor. Matching the tiles to look like the statue's face, a Pokémon came out of the statue and faced me in a battle. When I had won, the Pokémon presented me with an energy orb and became one with the wall once again.

While traveling up north to Snowpoint City, I came across a room in the northern regions of Mt. Coronet much like the one I found on Iron Island. Matching the puzzle on the floor to the statue, another Pokémon came out of the statue, and after a quick battle the Pokémon gave me an energy orb and molded back into the wall. I flew up north to Snowpoint City, and the blizzard had subsided to a normal trickle of snow. Candice of Snowpont Gym educated me on the statue Pokémon I had encountered and told me there were three of them called Regice, Regirock, and Registeel. She had traveled to northern Snowpoint to that temple I was kicked out of, and saw an ancient Pokémon statue of legend, Regigigas, that could only be revived by the presence of energy of the three Pokémon . Telling her I had two of the statue Pokémon's energy, she instructed me to travel east of Snowpoint across the sea to an island called Battle Island, or commonly referred to as the Battle Zone. She said the third statue Pokémon resided there and once I had obtained its energy, I should head to the Snowpoint Temple and present the energy to the great statue Pokémon . Imagining all the battles I could have there, I set off for the Battle Zone. The sun had set hours ago, so it looks like I wasn't going home just yet, but with Fearow's great speed, we could get to places in less than a minute.

Less than a minute after leaving Snowpoint, we had reached the harbor of the battle zone. To my surprise, I met up with Barry again and who I assumed was his father. Barry didn't recognize me at first, but with a friendly conversation and a reminder of our past battles, he realized who I was. Apparently, he had also beaten the Elite Four and Cynthia, and he came to the Battle Zone which he found out about from his dad. I told him what I was here for, and he said that he was headed up north to a place called the Survival Area. I decided to head east to the Resort Area, not to relax, but to head to Route 228 where my real prize was.

A furious raging sandstorm accompanied Route 228, along with many eager trainers, who I got the pleasure of battling, gaining the great feeling of nostalgia of battling Pokémon . Further north of the route, I came to a ditch where a cave entrance was barely visible at the bottom. Entering the cave, I saw that it was practically identical to the previous caves I had visited. Following the pattern on the statue, the third statue Pokémon Regirock separated from the statue and fought me, very lazily. It fought me with an almost, tired, bored additude as if it were saying, "Ah, whatever. I don't feel like fighting, but y'know. Tradition." After the battle, it presented me with an energy orb and coalesced with the wall as it had been before.

I began traveling up north to Route 227 to the giant volcano that loomed ove all of Battle Island, Stark Mountain. On the mountain, I found a stray Galactic member, going about some suspicious business. I was tempted to push him into a nearby lava pool, but I let him live. The lava looked kind of inviting itself, like a pool would be to a normal person who wouldn't sink underwater and nearly die because they're too dense to stay afloat due to their bones being made of steel. I tentatively dipped my hand into a lava pool, nice and warm. I held myself back from doing a cannonball into the lava pool and headed inside Stark Mt. Inside, many trainers were about, doing, well, training! I took the opportunity to fight all of them, letting my Pokémon finally have a chance to battle other Pokémon . In the heart of Stark Mt, I found another ancient Pokémon which I later identified as Heatran. It was a Fire/Steel Type like myself, so I got pretty excited and tried battling it. I'll just say, it wasn't easy to beat Heatran since, well, I'm basically fighting fire with fire. I refrained from using Magic since the prescence of Magic Energy in the east was less than that of the west, so it determined the strength of my Magic.

Barry told me he had traveled to Stark Mt. prior to stop a guy named Buck from swiping the Magma Stone which would prevent the volcano from exploding, then asked me why I was covered in lava. As he asked that, the lava soaked into my body and I felt a small amount of fire energy rush within me.

I didn't know I could do that.

After I separated from Barry, Fearow and I flew back to Snowpoint, headed for the temple. The lady ooutside who had previously told me that I wasn't allowed in now told me differently, saying that I was the 'chosen one' and I was allowed in the temple. The temple had many flights of stairs leading down, but in order to get to them, one would have to slide on ice to get there. Me, well, simply me just stepping on the ice melted it, so I ignored the puzzles and hoped that some Ice Pokémon would fix it. Once I reached the bottom floor, my prize: Regigigas. Before I could do anything, the three energy orbs morphed out of me, floating before the statue, spining faster and faster like my Flare Wheel, then enteriing the statue body. Lights on the statue lit up, then it began to move its limbs, exercising them after a long slumber. I moved into a battle stance and saw the statue form an energy orb, four times larger that a regular one, I assumed all three orbs I obtained from the three Statue Pokémon and Regigigas', combined into one. Remember, these orbs were small, about the size of a baseball. The ones I obtained from monsters were larger, a little smaller than a basketball.

I went to visit home that day, the afternoon of the third day. Mom and I went out to the store in Canalave (you used to only be able to get there by boat, but they built a walkway across the water a few years prior, much like the one on Route 32 in Johto) to buy stuff to make dinner with. I stayed at home for the rest of the day, helping Mom make dinner, spaghetti. Mom's spaghetti. I was nervous, but on the surface, I looked calm and ready to drop bombs, but I keep on forgetting what I wrote down-*ahem*-sorry, I sorta lost myself in the music, the moment, but I better never let it go, 'cuz I only got one shot, better not miss my chance to blow. This opportunity comes once in a lifetime.

YOU BETTA LOSE YOURSELF-

Ahem. Anyway.

Rapping aside, I helped mom make the sauce for the spaghetti and she let it simmer for a few hours, going back to stir it occasionally. I took the time to sit down and tell her about all my adventures, how far I've come, not just in training but in life in general- okay, let's be real, training was my life up until that point, no point in denying it.

That's when the sudden realization of what I was missing came to me.

It hit me like a truck, that was what I was missing, one of the holes in the cheese was filled in so to speak. The thing I was missing was a life. Training basically was my life, and I was so focused on just training that I had no life at all. In other words, I was basically a sack of muscles with no actual connection with people whatsoever. My time becoming so powerful was overshadowing the time I could be using to actually get to know people, in this case, the members of my guild. That would all change though, because I realized; strength lies in numbers. As in a team. That team was Team Natsu, which I had joined when we went to go take on the 2,000,000 Jewel quest. I also remember asking Mira out, which I hadn't taken her out yet, since I was solely focused on goddamn training. The promise was not yet broken, so I had time.

That time would be used more efficiently from that point on.

xxxx

The rest of the week was a lot better after my sudden realization. I visited the other regions and got reacquainted with the Gym Leaders and Elite Four of each. I took some time to actually do some sightseeing as if I were a tourist, and well, I kinda was. My favorite region aside from Sinnoh was Kalos, because the sights to be seen, nature to soak in, was all gorgeous. I mentally kicked myself for not noticing all the sights when traveling through the region at first. The Gym Leader who introduced me to Mega Evolution, Korrina, I thanked and displayed my Mega and Giga Evolution. She was intrigued, and suggested that I visit Professor Sycamore's lab in Lumiose City. He had also witnessed my Giga Evolution and concluded that I had the blood of the ancient Charizard Legion. Kinda guessed that already, but I didn't wanna ruin the moment.

As for the Mythical Pokémon , well, I found more than just Pokémon . That trainer from the book, AZ, I encountered a few times. After some time, I got to know the ancient dude, and it turned out that he created the ultimate weapon because of the Great Pokémon War and his beloved deceased Pokémon . I was able to encounter more Mythical Pokémon throughout the regions and with it, more history began to unfold. It was a learning experience, not just training. It felt like I was taking a Pokémon History class. My energy level grew more and more as I obtained energy orbs. All the orbs would be the equivalent of about... I wanna say, at least 10 monster souls? I could've killed 10 monsters in less than an hour, but it was worth it because I got something special out of it, a special move that I couldn't learn otherwise: Flare Sword. I was able to make a long, double-edged blade made up completely of fire with a fancy, fiery cross guard. A grand longsword crafted from nothing but flames?

That. Is. Fucking. Cool!

It was made of fire, but it was sturdy and kept its shape. It definitely was solid, but yet the embers flickered and licked like a real fire, Curious to see what would happen, I tried throwing the srod into some water. The instant it made contact with the surface, the sword exploded into a cloud of steam, fizzling out. I tried using it again, and a new sword formed in my hand, good as new.

Soon came the day before I was supposed to leave. I had returned from Hoenn that day, tired and ready to sleep. After saying goodnight to Mom and brushing my not as straight as a model teeth, I changed into a just boxers and a t-shirt and flopped down onto my bed. That's when I heard a familiar voice in my hea, the familiar deep voice of me father calling me from Lake Verity. I heard Mom coming upstairs at that moment, so I patiently waited until Mom's footsteps reached the top of the stairs and entered her bedroom, then snuck out of my room ever so quietly and ninjalike and started walking towards the lake.

I checked the time. 10:00 P.M. I assumed whatever Dad had to say was important, but I prayed that he wouldn't go on a rant this time.

"Good evening, Vincent," he spoke.

"Hey dad," I yawned.

"I see that you're tired, yes, but don't worry. I'll make this quick. First off, how's your week been for you?"

"Well, I did as you told me, and..." I formed Flare Sword in my hand as I spoke. "I gained this new power."

"Glad you listened! But! What I have to say must be dome quick, so listen closely." Dad rant mode activated. "Many years ago, Elementia obliterated the Charizard Legion, and he sent out his army of Team Skull, who had also formed an alliance with Team Rocket. The only teams that didn't exist back then were Team Magma and Aqua of Hoenn and Team Flare of Kalos. Well, Team Flare was formed out of the war, but that's another story for another day. Team Galactic also had some affiliation with Elementia and Team Skull, but it was mostly Team Skull and Rocket." _So then all those guys I killed really deserved it_ , I thought. "They wiped out almost 100% of the Legion, they even killed some that weren't from the Legion, even with no affiliation whatsoever. Charizards didn't nearly go extinct, but the population of Charizards plummeted heavily. With help from allied forces like the Pokemon-Human Alliance, they were able to subdue Elementia. Not defeat him, because I sensed his power, but at least subdue him for a while. The mages put a spell on him, but it may be starting to wear of, and it's only a matter of time before he regains power and begins another war, another reign of destruction and terror. This is where you came in, because it's your destiny to defeat Elementia once and for all. However, you may need help. You remember how I said almost the whole Legion was broken apart? The Legion isn't finihed yet. Although small, some Charizards are still alive. There's only 7 left in the Legion, and they're elite Legion soldiers as well as masters of combat tactics and skills. If you find all of them, You can increase your power more and stand a chance against Elementia."

 _Oh, don't wory, I won't only stand a chance against him, I'll squah him like a bug, like a pest_ , I thought. "Thanks Dad. I will find them, inform them of what's going on. What do I do once I meet them though?"

"You tell them to go to a hiding spot. They know hiding spots like the back of their little hands." As he said that, I realized for the first time that his arms were just as long as a regular human's. I had never noticed it before that, but it was interesting. "You won't understand it, but tell them to rendezvous at Spot #2. Also, I just wanted you to know, Your uncle who you've also never known, he served in the Legion, and he's still alive. I consider it a miracle. He was elite like me, like my older brother Connor, who was caught before me. Your uncle's name is Uncle Eddy, he's the only one who has the recessive gene of long arms like me. I'll explian it another time, but for now, get some rest. You're heading back to Fiore soon, correct?"

"I'm leaving in the morning. I can get there quickly because of my Dimension Magic."

"Okay, good. Remember that I'm always with you. Do your best, strive to go beyond even your best. See you soon. Be good to your mother, okay?" With that, He drifetd away into the wind.

"I will Dad," I whispered.

xxxx

"Alright Mom, see you soon! I don't know how often I can come bck, but I'll try to come back as often as possible," I called as I stood at the door.

"Alright, take care of yourself! Love you sweetie!" she called after me. With one last wave goodbye, I stepped out into the cool morning air. Outside, I set a travel point to Switch to, then using Dimension Switch, I found myself back in Fiore, standing inside my house. I quickly exited my house and ran to the guild as quickly as possible to let everyone know that I was back, happy and quite eager to talk to my fellow guildmates again.

I wasn't gonna be happy with the news that was waiting for me.


	39. Chapter 39: The Island

With much excitement from my epiphany, the guild doors burst open as I stepped in, met by the completely dead-panned, silent guild hall.

"Yo! What's up?" I yelled, the only thing that could be heard aside from Erza speaking quietly to Makarov, turning once she heard my voice. I curiously went over to her and Makarov, noticing that she was solo, that Natsu, Gray, Lucy, and Happy were gone. The odd part was, I'd never seen Erza by herself. Putting the pieces together-

Oh no. Whatever this was, it couldn't be good. At all.

"Erza? Makarov? What the heck is going on here?" I questioned.

"Oh no. If you were to know..." began Erza.

"Tell him anyway, Erza. He should know," insisted Makarov. Erza acquired a new look on her face, beyond exasperation or fright.

"Please do not get angry or go on a rampage when I say this..." she said quietly. "While you were gone, Natsu and Happy went up to the second floor, a floor reserved for S-Class Mages such as myself, and stole an S-Rank Quest. They don't know the danger of this, what they're bringing themselves into. Out of all the quests, they stole the most dangerous one. Mind you, they're all dangerous, but this one is far more dangerous than any of the others."

"I know what S-class is, but what the hell were they thinking?" She didn't respond because at that moment, a tall guy with yellow hair, purple button-down shirt and brown coat, and weird spiked headphones or something on his ears leaned over the balcony, smoking a blunt with a nasty grin on his face.

"Huh? Who're you? Why're you up there?" I called. The guy acknowledged me, his grin widening.

"'Why're you up there?' Why do you ask such dumb questions, dumbass?" he mocked, making my teeth grit. I could automatically tell that I didn't like this guy.

"Laxus! Don't be such a jerk! He didn't know you were up there!" defended Mira. She looked over and smiled, causing me to slightly grin in response.

Laxus scoffed. "You ignorant dumbass. Wanna know why I'm up here? Because I'm better and stronger than all of you chumps, all you maggots."

Now it was my turn to scoff. "Self-righteous asshole," I muttered under my breath. Mira shot me a look that told me I shouldn't have said that, that something bad would happen if Laxus heard me. Which he did.

"Sorry, wanna say that again, you mumbling dumbass?" he taunted, cupping his hand around his ear. Now I was starting to get annoyed.

"That's what I thought-"

"I said that you're a goddamn, self-righteous, stupid asshole piece of shit!" I yelled, vibrating the whole guild. It did more than vibrate the guild though, not just make it go silent. Every single person stopped all movement, holding their breaths, covering their mouths, completely paralyzing everyone in fear with looks of complete shock on each of their wide-eyed faces.

Laxus on the other hand, adopted a look far more pissed than Erza. His shitty grin morphed into a similar teeth-barred expression as mine at that moment, eyebrows curled and eyes widened.

"You... little... punk-ass. Know your place." In a bright flash, his fist became enveloped in a ball of sparks, lightning. My weakness.

Uh. Oh.

Hiding my fright, I glared at Laxus realizing that his Magic was my weakness and that he could mess me up or even kill me if we got into a fight.

"Go on. Say something else, smartass. I dare you," he snarled. I was tempted to say something, but Makarov jumped in before anything could happen.

"Laxus! That's quite enough!" he bellowed. Laxus' dumb grin appeared again.

"You dumb old geezer... you think you're the boss, well enjoy it now! When I surpass you, and take over the guild, little pests like him will be crushed under my mighty foot!" As he spoke, he glared at me.

"We'll settle this one day, me and you. Just you wait," he growled.

I rolled and diverted my eyes from his deadly gaze. "Whatever." I wanted to throw a lot of good words at him and his self-righteous ass, but I just bit my lip. Turning around and walking coolly out of sight, I was able to let my breath go which I had been holding ever since I had insulted him, making a shiver run down my arms. The whole entire guild seemed to release their breaths in unison with me, meaning that Laxus had a bad reputation in the guild.

"What the hell is his deal?" I asked Erza, who tried wiping the slightly frightened look on her face.

"It would take too long to tell you right now, but the thing is, he's an S-Class wizard like me, but even more powerful. Makarov volunteered him to go bring back Natsu, Happy and Lucy from the S-Rank quest, but he refused. His power is far above my own, and that's what makes him behave in such a way. He thinks he's above everyone else. What you did right there... well, I'll say no one has ever stood up to Laxus like that before, not even Natsu has insulted him like that. Although I'm not saying what you said was right..." Erza grinned very slightly. "... it takes a lot of guts to do that, to set him right." As she was talking, she slapped her hand to my chest.

"Although me standing up to him is all fine and good, shouldn't we...?" I trailed off, reminding her of the current mission.

"Yes, you're right. Master, we'll be off," she called.

"Be careful! We don't want to lose two more guild members!" he called back. Erza and I started to walk out, but Mira nervously walked up to me and tapped my shoulder.

"Um... well..." she stammered, looking down at her shuffling feet. Without warning, she stepped forward and wrapped her arms around me, resting her head on my shoulder. A second later, I realized what she was doing and returned the hug.

"Be safe out there, okay? Good luck to the both of you, stay strong Vinny. I'm rooting for you, don't ever give up. Whatever lies ahead, I..." she stopped and gave a little peck on my cheek. "I know that you can do it. Now go get em', bad boy." Letting go of me, we realized the whole guild was staring at us. Lots of "aw"s and snickers went around, but I didn't care how embarrassing the situation may be. I knew that Mira cared about me, how she was rooting for me. Thus confirmed my theory as I walked out the door with Erza, how I shouldn't lose sight of other things aside from my training, how there were more important things in life than training and growing stronger.

xxxx

In Hargeon, Erza began searching around for a ship. A fast ship that would take us to wherever Natsu and the others were. I was thinking she'd find a speedboat or something, but no. Instead, she raided a cargo ship and intimidated everyone into submission. Soon, we began sailing out of the harbor, and she began shouting orders on where to go. I was starting to see the bad side of her…

"Vinny!" I jumped. _Dammit! Got on her bad side already! What did I do wrong?_

"Um… yes…?" I spoke carefully.

Noticing my worriedness, she calmed down a tad. "I need you to look out for land. And inform me immediately once you do."

"O-okay… but, excuse me for asking, but are you alright?" Again, I chose my words carefully.

"Yes… I'm fine. But you must understand, rules are rules and they must be followed. Natsu and the others partook in a dangerous quest, in which they broke the rules. And those who break the rules…" her expression changed to have the sternness of authority, "...must be punished!" Right after, she returned to shouting orders. I made a mental note to never get on Erza's bad side, because what I had just witnessed in her expression wasn't nearly close. I really didn't want to test her patience, so I instantly climbed up to the crow's nest and strained my eyes to search for land.

About 20 minutes later, the faint outline of an island started drifting toward us. The moment I noticed this, I bellowed to Erza, "I see land!" Jumping down to meet her, she gazed into the distance and confirmed the sighting.

"Yes. That's where they went to take on the quest; Galuna Island. It's a cursed island, where the moon turns the inhabitants into monsters. The quest itself was to lift the curse from the island, hence why the request is Rank S."

"But, lifting a curse... wouldn't that take a lot of intellect and energy? I mean, I don't know how to cast a curse, much less break one!"

"We're not going to this island to lift the curse!" Erza raised her voice. "Natsu and the others broke a strict rule of our guild, and now they must face the consequences. So heed this warning, Vinny. If you break the rules, you face the risk of being kicked out of the guild. Worse still, you may get in trouble with the Magic Council."

"Got it. I won't break the rules," I said hastily. Suddenly, the boat began to rock vigorously. "Uh oh. Why do I get the feeling that that wasn't supposed to happen?"

"Hey! Keep the boat steady!" shouted Erza to the crew.

"W-we're not doin' it, miss!" cried a sailor. His reply was not false, as great ocean wall rose up, towering high above the mast, casting the entire ship in a fluid shadow.

"Holy sh- er, crap...!" I caught myself before cussing in front of Erza once again, as the wall slammed down on the boat in an instant, creating a massive collision of wood and water, drowning the entire ship within seconds, along with it the crew. Desperately trying to swim up to the surface of the water to no avail as I was too heavy and started sinking like an anvil, I hastily Summoned Gyarados to carry me up to the surface.

The timing could not have been more perfect, as I began to drown just before my head broke the surface of the water. Frantically, I searched around for Erza among the rushing water, who appeared on the surface shortly after, drawing in deep breaths of fresh air. She swam over to me, but the relentless ocean summoned another wave crashing down, putting both of us under again, and barely giving us a chance once we gained a breath, sent us back under. Immediately, I began to sink very rapidly, losing breath faster than I could regain it. Gyarados swam down to rescue me, just as I was beginning to lose consciousness. Once we reached the surface, I Summoned Fearow, who I helped Erza climb onto, holding on behind me. After returning Gyarados, Fearow took off towards the distant island I commanded him to fly to.

A short time afterwards, we found ourselves on the sandy beach of the cursed isle of Galuna. Everything seemed normal for a while, as I didn't find myself turning into one of the horrific beasts as she had described.

She noticed this and gave me some assurance. "Don't worry. Only the island natives were turned into monsters." With this I breathed a short sigh of relief, but then Erza looked dead serious again. "While they're monsters, they're also people. So don't you dare saying anything about their appearance or killing any of them, as I know you would do."

"Wait, what? I wasn't thinking that at all! That's absurd! I would never kill another human being!" A lie of course, as I was guilty of killing members of evil gangs inconspicuously, but in order to stay on her good side, I would have to keep the truth from her. "Honestly Erza, now don't take this offensively, but you need to chill out. I understand the situation-"

"No! You do not understand the dire situation and the consequences it brings! You wouldn't understand what the others have gotten themselves into! You wouldn't understand how downright dangerous this is, not to mention absurdly dumb!" She stopped, as she saw that in utter surprise that I had backed up so much that I fell flat on my backside, looking very defensive. If she was about to attack me out of anger, I was ready to take a hit. Then all of a sudden, she straightened herself up and visibly relaxed just a bit. "I- ah. I am truly sorry. You must forgive me for lashing out like that. I didn't mean anything I said. I'm just terribly worried about the others and the condition they're in. I do hope they're alright. However! That doesn't mean I'm proud of what they did, because what they did was undeniably stupid. I just hope that they haven't gone into too much trouble. But again, I'm sorry for lashing out at you. I certainly meant nothing by it. I understand you've done nothing wrong here." She held out her hand for me. Hesitantly, I accepted her outstretched hand and stood up, dusting myself off. I realized what lay ahead would be no easy task, but I was ready to face it head on.

xxxx

After wandering what seemed aimlessly for quite some time, although I was inclined to trust that Erza knew where she was going, I started questioning whether she was actually confident in where we were headed because all I had seen for the past half hour was thick forest and vegetation. I felt the sudden urge to burn down the forest and create a clearing, but something told me that Erza wouldn't approve of my decision. However, I did look stop to look at my surroundings at one point to soak in the environment, and appreciated how nice everything looked, which made me feel bad about thinking of burning down the vegetation. While I was taking in my surroundings, though, I realized that I was no longer following Erza, which made me panic a bit. I quickly snapped back to the real world, and began speed walking in the direction I thought Erza had gone. Then, I heard a sharp whistle that didn't sound like it would come from anyone but her, which was in the opposite direction I was running. Facepalming and internally scolding myself, I turned around and rushed off to reunite with her.

"If you hadn't been distracted and had been following me the whole time, focused on the mission, then you would've seen that Lucy is in trouble and needs our help," she reprimanded.

"Yeah, uh, sorry about that. I know, I should've stayed-"

"Now's not the time to apologize. Your apology is accepted, but we must go help Lucy!" she interrupted, making me feel embarrassed. She rushed ahead, equipping her sword, making me hesitate for a second because it seemed like she had it under control due to her being an S-Class Mage and all. After she slashed at a giant blue rat sort of creature and gave Lucy the death glare, I sheepishly stepped into the clearing and avoided being in Erza's line of sight and eye contact as well as I slid up awkwardly behind her as she began scolding Lucy.

"Lucy. You know why we're here. Right?" spoke Erza.

"Oh! You're here to take us back! Is that right?" Lucy answered in a much too jolly attitude for the situation, as her voice was awkwardly echoed as she said so.

"I-I'm...uh…" stammered Lucy. At that moment, Happy flew in out of nowhere.

"Hey there, Lucy! I've been looking all over for you! I was so-" He stopped when he saw me and Erza there. Then we both looked straight at him. Realizing what was going on, he started to fly away, but Erza reacted too quick and rushed to grab him by the tail. Seeing no use in struggling, Happy gave up and let his body hang limp as if he were dead, which he probably wished for right then.

"Lucy. Where's Natsu and Gray?" said Erza.

"Listen, I'm sorry for breaking the rules!" cried Lucy. "But I swear, the island is in big trouble! Someone thought it would be a good idea to bring sealed demons back to life, and all the people in the village are suffering from it! They need our help. We tried vanquishing the spell ourselves, but then-"

"That is not my concern," said Erza.

"Then you can let us help them! Please, let us finish the job-" Lucy stopped mid sentence, because Erza was holding her sword up to Lucy's face.

"E-Erza! What do you think you're doing?" I shouted. Erza gave me a look too.

"I won't hesitate to harm you too, if you decide to get in my way-" I heard Erza say, and then, she raised her sword and sliced Lucy with one fatal blow, making my eyes open wide. Blood leaked out of Lucy's chest as she fell, making time stand still. Without thinking, I dashed at Erza, tackling her to the ground.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" yelled Erza.

"I could ask you the same question! What are you doing? You killed her! That's what! Why did you kill her?!" I roared. Erza looked heavily taken aback.

"W-what? What are you talking about? Have you gone mad? I would never kill any of you! See, she's still standing right there!" She was right, because I glanced over my shoulder, and sure enough, there stood Lucy, shocked, but still alive and intact. No blood dripping from her chest, nothing of the sort.

"... That's strange. Why…?" I muttered as I stood up, helping Erza up as well. 'I'm sorry, Erza. Forgive me for acting in such a way. I don't know what came over me, what I was thinking."

"Are you alright? What gave you the idea that I killed her?" said Erza.

"Okay, I don't want you to think I'm insane, but somehow, while you were holding up that sword to her face, I definitely witnessed before my eyes you slashing her in the chest, killing her. I don't know why I would see that, but that's what I saw before my eyes. I'm not joking," I said.

"I don't believe you are, but why did you think that? All I did was make Lucy be quiet."

"Again, don't think I'm crazy, but I wasn't even thinking of you doing that. I would think nothing of the sort. I even heard you clearly say, 'I won't hesitate to hurt you as well, if you decide to get in my way.' Then you struck her with your sword."

"That is strange. Don't worry, I don't believe you've gone crazy. I understand, you've been under the stress of training, and that may be all you're thinking about; fighting. You should definitely take a break. The body must have time to heal in order to gain. I learned that the hard way. But now," she turned back to Lucy, with her sword still pointed at her. Lucy hadn't moved an inch. "Lucy. If you disobey the rules, you've disobeyed the master, and the guild. I will make sure this does not go unpunished. Let's go." Lucy began to shake, and her legs refused to move. I eventually just picked her up and carried her over my shoulder while Erza held tight onto Happy's tail.

For the next hour or so, we began searching for Natsu, but no avail. Erza had me Summon some rope to use Lucy and Happy to sniff out Natsu, Lucy searching on land, and Happy in the sky. When that failed, Erza had Lucy and Happy look for Gray, and Happy spotted a camp where Gray may be in. In the camp, I realized what Erza meant by the people being half-monster/human. Everyone in the camp had at least one non human body part, whether it be an arm or leg or something else. We had permission to stay in a tent, the largest tent in the camp.

"So what now? I thought we were looking for Gray?" I said.

"Gray will know to find us. I informed one of the village folk to let Gray know that we're waiting right here for him. Now we wait," replied Erza.

"Hey, uh, Erza?" I spoke.

"No."

"Buh- I didn't even-"

"No."

"Should I go look f-"

"No."

"Oh, alright then."

"Are you sure that I shouldn't-"

"No."

"I mean-"

"No."

"Gray."

"What?" She looked around.

"'Should I go look for him?' is what I'm trying to say, because he's making us wait-"

Erza glared at me.

"What? Don't you want this to go quicker? So we can all return to the guild?"

"Fine! Do what you must!" she yelled. Slowly, I stood up, making my way to the entrance of the tent, but at that moment, Gray walked right in and bumped into me.

"Ow! What the hell…? Vinny? Why are you here? How are you here-" Gray then noticed Erza and quickly got up off the floor.

"Gray. You're late."

"What…?! Lucy? Happy? And… Vinny… again, why?" he said.

"I volunteered to go with Erza to bring you guys back. What happened to you bringing them back?"

"How'd you know about that…?" Gray looked over at Erza. "Oh. Right."

"Lucy and Happy filled me in on everything that's been happening. Like Vinny said, what happened to you bringing them back? Disappointment is an understatement in this situation."

"Where even is Natsu?" said Gray.

"That's what I'd like to know."

"Natsu was supposed to be fighting Reitei's minions in the village, but when we went to look, the village had been destroyed. We figured Natsu would be fine on his own, so we went to look for you instead," said Lucy.

"I searched in the air," said Happy. "That's how we found this camp."

"Gray. Once we find Natsu, we're returning to the guild immediately."

"What? What are you saying, Erza? If you know the details of the situation, then you know what's happening to the inhabitants, right?" said Gray.

"What about it? I came here to bring you rule breakers back. Anything besides that is beyond my concern."

"But didn't you see the condition that the people were in?"

"Yes. I did."

"Then are you just gonna let that go?"

"The request was posted in every guild. It'd be better to leave the job to guild mages who accepted the task properly."

"I've misjudged you, Erza," said Gray.

Erza glared over her shoulder. "What did you just say?"

"How could you say that to the great Erz1, Gray?!" Happy cried.

"'Great'?" muttered Lucy.

"Do you want to join your friends too? Do you intend to break the rules as well?" Erza shouted, summoning her sword to hold up to Gray's face. "You will not get away with it." Then, without warning, Gray grabbed the sword, with his bare hand! With a hand of flesh and veins, gripping the sharp, mighty sword as if his arm were like mine, as he stared back at Erza.

"Do what you must. But this is the path I've chosen. I must do this." with that, he went to leave the tent, but stopped in the entrance way. "I'll end this my way. If you must kill me, then do it." He left, leaving Erza embarrassed. That was the wrong move, because then Erza turned in frustration to Lucy and Happy, sword in hand.

"Aaaugh! C-calm down Erza!"

" He's only salty because he lost to his rival! Don't kill us!"

Then, with two slices from her blade, without harming Lucy or Happy, the ropes were cut, freeing them both.

"This current situation is unacceptable. We will return to the guild once this job is completed."

"Yay! Erza!" cried Lucy and Happy.

"Don't get comfortable. You'll all still be punished."

"Right…"

"Aye…"

She turned to leave the tent but muttered to me, "Except you, of course."

"Makes sense," I replied. " Let's go!" I called to Lucy and Happy.

I was ready for some action.


	40. Chapter 40: The Return

Gray led us up the path that led us to some kind of temple or whatever to stop the summoning ritual of some stupid beast, and the story began to unfold. I didn't really care about the history behind this monster, I just wanted to kill it.

"So Lyon's ultimate goal was to defeat the demon," explained Gray.

"To defeat Deliora? That's why he wanted to summon it? But wait, then what's the point? Isn't the demon, like, half-defeated already?" panted Lucy.

Gray stopped to take a breather, and so did we. "Lyon's ultimate goal was to surpass Ur. But now that Ur is gone, he wants to defeat the demon that Ur couldn't, in order to surpass her."

"I see, so that's the only way to surpass one who's dead."

"No… Lyon doesn't know the truth. Ur may be gone, but what he doesn't know… is that she's still alive!"

"What?!" we all cried.

"What do you mean?" said Erza.

"...Let me explain. Ten years ago, the city where I lived was attacked by the demon Deliora. It didn't even take a full day for it to be destroyed. Ur and Lyon found me under a pile of wreckage, and that's how it all began."

Gray told us about how he acquired his weird habit of stripping his clothes, because of his training in the snow to learn his Ice-Make Magic. Then one day he left Ur and Lyon because he had heard that Deliora had moved somewhere close by. I realized he had similar goals as me, to defeat the monster who destroyed his town and avenge his mother and father. Which reminded me why I was there in the first place; to grow stronger and defeat Elementia. That would push me even harder to my ultimate goal, to vanquish the entire world of evildoing.

As we ran along, the temple came into view. It was kind of weird though, because it looked very tilted.

"Huh…? It's tilted?" muttered Lucy.

"I'll bet Natsu did it," said Gray. "Not sure why or how he did it, but only he would do something that crazy. But it really doesn't matter whether he did it on purpose or not, because now the moonlight can't shine on Deliora."

"Who knew that Natsu's insatiable hunger for destruction would come in handy one of these days?" said Lucy.

"I knew it. It was foreshadowed," said Happy.

Suddenly, his cat senses kicked in, and it was just in time, as many upon many sharp boomerangs shot out of the trees, straight at us.

"Oh no!" screamed Lucy. A blade was headed straight for my face, but I put up my arm to block it in time. the n others came, and I performed these crazy acrobatic stunts I never knew I had in me. But then, I began to feel weird, like there was a disturbance in my energy force. It had that familiar feeling, but I couldn't place it. I straightened myself up, but as I looked around, I saw that the boomerangs had taken a toll on the others, and razor sharp blades were sticking out of their bodies, slowly killing them.

"Heheheh… we've finally defeated you, Fairy Tail. We can't allow you to interfere with Master Reitei. You're the only survivor. No way could you take on all of us at once," said a voice, and then I saw them all, a large group of people, all wearing strange masks and cloaks and wielding large boomerangs.

A sudden anger began to rise over me…

 _No. Don't lose your cool. Not now… what if this is just another hallucination, like before?_ I told myself. Then, looking down at their bodies, the blood dripping out of their all their open wounds, the head, the heart, the disabled arms and legs…

 _What if it's NOT?!_ I screamed internally, clenching my fists and gritting my teeth. My eyebrows curled and darkened my expression. Without seeing their expressions, I knew they were laughing. Laughing at me.

 _They killed my friends. Now they'll pay._ I could hear the champion of Sinnoh, Cynthia's voice echoing in my mind: "You may not be able forgive a person, but that doesn't mean you have to kill them!" _Cynthia, you may have stopped me from killing anyone back then, and I haven't since then… but you know what..._

 _FUCK THAT!_

With a mighty roar, I rushed at the group with my arms ignited, jumped in the air doing a 360, then landing a Flame Cross Chop on the front group. There were still many others, but my reflexes were quick and I was able to land many attacks with minor scratches.

"You… killed… MY FRIENNNDDS!" I screamed, quickly Mega Evolving, then Giga Evolving, then pressure on my body rose to a monumental scale. My teeth ground hard as energy overflowed, too much for my body to handle. But I pushed my limits, I _had_ to, if I had to be the strongest. My left arm grew larger, larger than my ever growing masculine body, adopting a line of razor claw-like spikes from my shoulder to my wrist. Then curved metal claws began ripping out of my body, the bone tearing my skin, making me unapproachable. Long coils of fire began wrapping around my metal arm, engulfing it entirely. As I aimed my arm at the group, the insane energy burst out of my arm uncontrollably, incinerating nearly all of the members.

I began a dash at the remaining survivors, but my uncontrollable energy cloaked me in flames once again, immediately launching me forward at speeds previously incapable. The force of the impact combined with the intense temperature of the blazing cloak of flame disintegrated the last few enemies, leaving me as the last man standing. However, my victory was rather short lived, as my body could handle Giga Evolution no further, and I transformed back into my regular form.

That was my last memory before I blacked out again.

xxxx

"...Ughh… my head… everything hurts. Hold on. Where… where the hell… am I…?" I expected be in another lucid Elementia dream, but instead, I felt completely wide awake. Voices could be heard, chatting, laughing, and having fun. Sitting up, I noticed I was in some kind of tent. Soreness overcame me, and it was a struggle to stand.

"Is there… a party going on? A festival…?" I pondered, but all questions were answered once I took a peek, as a huge banquet was being held by the natives, and Erza, Happy, Lucy, and Natsu were all sitting around as well, (Gray was being flustered by a group of demon-girls) all alive and well. But wait, did that mean that it was another hallucination? What was going on there? These mind-boggling questions entered my brain, causing a war of questions and answers to break out. I shook my head clear and began to exit the tent, but as I stepped out, I realized I was shirtless.

"Ack!" I yipped as I darted back into the tent. I had a feeling that Erza and the others noticed me, so before one of them could barge into the tent, I searched around for the shirt I was wearing before. I spotted the purple shirt in the corner of the tent, folded up, along with my jacket and my fedora sitting on top of the pile. Quickly, I struggled to get my shirt on, just in time. Erza opened the flap on the tent, just as I pulled my shirt down over my bare chest.

"Sup," my voice cracked awkwardly as I whipped around to face her. I blindly reached for my jacket and fedora like a complete dumbass, and finally gave up and glanced over my shoulder to accurately locate them. Erza couldn't help but smirk, just a lighthearted, rare Erza smile.

"It's alright. I was the one one who undressed you. You need not to be embarrassed," she assured.

… There was an awkward silence.

"I know that was meant to be reassuring, but somehow I don't really find it to be," I chuckled. "Let's not make this any more awkward than it already is. I have to ask you something."

"Sure. I'll bet you have a lot of questions, but all can be explained to you in time."

"Um, it's about that thing that happened with those bad guys earlier. What did I do? Did I seriously hurt anyone? I only did so because I thought you were all dead…"

"Let me tell you. No, you didn't seriously hurt or kill anyone," she said. Thank god, I sighed. "But you did certainly yell very loudly and angrily that they killed us. Gray, Natsu, and Happy were confused and thought you had gone insane, just as I had thought, but I had to explain to them that those were the aftereffects of your training. Then you beat up everyone in the group after transforming, then I only assume that it was too much for you to handle, because you passed out."

"Okay, but what happened to the demon? Deliora?"

"It turned out that Deliora's life force had been drained due to the Iced Shell that Ur had cast. The Moon Drip ceremony had taken effect, but Natsu defeated Deliora in one attack because it was on the brink of death."

"Okay. One thing I don't understand is, I stepped out for a second, and everyone besides you guys are demons! Why? I thought you said they were half-demons?"

"I'll explain," said Erza.

So she told me, the inhabitants of the island had lost their memories due to the purple moon; the Moon Drip had caused a transparent layer of film to loom overhead, making the natives lose their memories of being demons, and they assumed the forms of humans instead, believing they were half- monster and a curse had been cast on the island three years prior, when Lyon and his gang had started the Moon Drip ceremony. With everyone at peace, they all decided to celebrate. I thought it was pretty lame that I had woken up just now, missing out on all the action, but as long as everyone was happy and satisfied, I tried not to care too much about it. But it couldn't be helped, I had missed the fight with Lyon, Deliora, and the Moon Drip.

"What's wrong, Vinny? You look a little irritated…?" noted Erza.

"Oh, uh, it's… er… nothing," I answered. We exited the tent, and the huge banquet of food waited for us. I sat down next to Natsu, who was happily chomping away at some fire. Curious, I asked Natsu if I could try eating some fire, which he motioned to some torches. I lit a stick with fire from the torch and tentatively closed my mouth around the little flame that was burning. It didn't hurt, and it tasted weird, like nothing I've ever tasted. It had a smooth taste, but it was edible.

For the first time in a while, I was actually enjoying myself. That's not to say that the quests I went on weren't enjoyable, it's just that I was finally reuniting with people again, after shutting myself off from people for so long. I got to know thing that had been happening while I was semi-absent from the guild from Natsu, and we ate a lot of food and had a good time, as with everyone else.

However, I was still a bit irked about not being able to destroy any monsters, but I guess the whole point of going to Galuna Island was to bring Natsu and the others back. I had the urge to go back to the guild and complete a quest, but I tried to keep it down for the most part. And considering it was nighttime, I doubted that anyone would be at the guild. Then that thought started morphing into other thoughts like, what if the guild was still open? What if Mira was there? What if Makarov was still there? What if there was a monster hunting quest waiting to be taken? Well, that was actually a 9/10 chance, because there would always be more than one monster quest when I checked the board. But the thought continued to bug me.

Finally, I couldn't take it anymore. I rose up, and addressed Erza.

"Erza. Now that all is done, may I return home?" I asked.

"If you must go, inform Master that we will be returning home tomorrow afternoon," replied Erza.

"Thank you. I do believe I have a quest to take on. I must start taking on stronger beasts…" I trailed off. "Okay! Everyone, thank you very much. I may not have helped much, I realize, but thank you still for being hospitable towards me and my friends," I called to the village folk.

The chief spoke. "Why not stay and enjoy your time with us? This is the least we can do for you all!"

"Thank you, chief, you're very kind. But I have business I must attend to."

"I insist! Please stay with us a while!"

"I'm glad you'd like me to stay with you guys, but I must head home. My friends will follow in the morning, so at least you have them to socialize with. Believe me, I'd love to stay, but it's time for me to return home. Thank you so much."

"No, thank you! We're truly in debt to all of you. Best of luck going forward, young one!" Everyone else rose to bid me farewell as well, and I was a bit sad to wave goodbye, but the fate of the world was at stake. If I didn't train immediately, then I wouldn't be nearly strong enough to defeat that insane tyrant. I also had to find out why I was having these weird hallucinations here and there.

"See you all another day!" I called to the villagers. "See you guys back at the guild!" I called to Natsu and the gang. Once I was a few feet away from the people, I held out my left hand and summoned a Dimension Magic Circle. Then extending my right arm and doing a revolving motion, to overlapping my arms face down, holding them up as if they were folded on a table.

"Dimension Switch!" I raised my overlapping arms over my head, thrusting then down so that they were at my sides, then I dropped into the magic circle and teleported away.

Back in Magnolia, a magic circle appeared in front of my house, and I rose up through the circle/portal in the same pose as when I left Galuna just a split second before. Not wasting any time, I ran as fast as I could though the town like a madman to the guildhall, where I was half expecting no one to be there, but fortunately Mira was present. She appeared to be cleaning up a bit.

"Hey," I spoke, then Mira looked up and saw me standing in the doorway.

"Hey yourself, badass," she replied. She smiled sweetly and walked up to hug me. She sighed tiredly as I wrapped my arms around her, and I had to admit, I was feeling a bit tired myself.

"How was the island? Did you go swimming?" she asked.

"Nah, we weren't there for that. Erza was being all like, 'We must bring the others back to the guild so that they can be punished! No rule breaker should go unpunished!'" I badly imitated in a rather husky woman voice, making Mira giggle. "But she ended up doing the quest with them anyway. I didn't do much, sorta just stood back and watched at first, which made me question why Erza bothered bringing me along with her. Then I went ape shit and started seeing terrible things that didn't actually happen, but I acted like they had. Probably because I haven't slept for days, but I wiped out an entire group of people and then blacked out, missing out on the action."

"Why did you pass out? Are you hurt or something?"

"No, not hurt. Just sore from using my Giga Evolution. I know I should focus on controlling my Giga Evolution now, but I'm curious to find out what my other Evolutions might be."

"Sounds like a lot happened. Where are the others? Why are you back before them? Actually, better question, _how_ are you back before them?"

"Well, I travelled here using my Dimension Magic. With it, I'm able to manipulate space and travel places quickly. That's how I got here so quickly."

" _Why_ did you come back, though?" Mira smiled. "Was it so you could see me? Or was it because you wanted to nab a quest?" _Damn, she's putting me on the spot_ , I thought.

"I-I uh... is it alright to say 'kinda both'...?" I stuttered.

"'Kinda', or just 'Both'?" she smiled, knowing she got me.

"Both. Yes. Both. Absolutely both." I said quickly, not really thinking about what I said. "...but I was thinking about you more." _Yeah. Real smooth._

"That's good enough for me. Thanks for thinking about me. Unfortunately, all of the requests were taken. However..." She smiled devilishly.

A grin appeared on my face. "Mira, did you do it again?" From behind her back, she held up a folded up request paper, reserved specially for me.

"I know. I'm so bad. But I was thinking how you'd be so upset to find them all taken, so I chose the highest paying one and hid it for until you came back."

"How much is it?"

"Oh, I don't know, somewhere around... I wanna say... 600,000 Jewel."

"Woah! Is that for real? It's been a while since one has been so high!" I exclaimed. "Mira. Thank you so much. You're truly the best. And not just because of things like these. You're awesome."

Slight blush. "Thanks... but so are you. You're way cooler, way more awesome than I am. I wish I could go on quests again."

"Why don't you? Why are you unable to?" I asked, but she looked as if she didn't want to answer that. In fact, it looked like she was about to cry.

"Oh...! No, um, I'm sorry! Did I say something wrong? I'm sorry!"

She wiped a small tear from her face. "No, it's alright. I just..." she closed her eyes and a stream of tears began leaking out of them, running down her smooth face.

I wiped away her tears with my thumb and held her chin up. I noticed I was a bit taller than her, but the thought quickly withered away, as my focus turned to her face.

"Hey. Look. I'll tell you what, you can go with me on a quest some day, and I'll do my best to defend you if trouble strikes."

"I can't... I don't have enough Magic Power..."

"Forget that. It doesn't matter if you don't have enough Magic Power, I will protect you. I promise."

"You promise. Okay. I'll give it some thought."

"Cool. Oh, also..." my expression grew very serious. "I told you something a while ago, and I have yet to fulfill that."

"What was that?"

"I said that sometime, I would take you somewhere nice, maybe get some food, and we could just talk and get to know each other, y'know?"

"That sounds good. I'd like that." She looked down at her feet, folding and unfolding her fingers nervously. "I, uh, want to ask a question."

"Ask me anything," I said kindly.

"Um... so I realized I hadn't had the chance to say it when I was confident enough, and when I wasn't, you were there. I was also too embarrassed to ask in front of other people. I wanted to ask..." she stopped and stared at the ground unconfidently. "Since neither one of us hadn't asked officially... um... do you wanna date?" she almost shouted.

I had seen this coming, but was still kind of taken aback. Somehow. I decided to try and play it cool. "What is it that you see in me that you want to go out with me? Look at me. I'm a mess." That much was true. I was a mess. I hadn't socialized with people for the past three months, and I also hadn't slept a lot during that time, which caused all these crazy hallucinations, and most importantly, I wasn't strong enough. If I could barely withstand the energy of my Giga Evolution, then who knew how it was all going to turn out in the end?

"You're most certainly not a mess, otherwise you'd be wearing dirty clothes that would be all ripped up and what not."

"That's called being a slob. Being a mess is something quite different. I meant mentally, not physically or fashionably.

"Well, you're not a mess, otherwise I wouldn't ask you."

"But what is it you see in me? Why me, and not someone else?" I asked.

"Well... for one, you're more handsome than some of the guys here, and you're kind."

"When have I shown kindness...?"

"You're nice to me. You're nice to Natsu and the team. Not only that, but you're courageous, strong, and you're a normal person, not too wild, and not too serious. I've seen you smile, whereas, let's say for instance, Gray doesn't smile very often, and neither does Erza."

"'Normal', huh? I guess so, but you know, there's more to me than meets the eye."

"Vin, there's more to all of us than meets the eye. We all have our own backstories, where we came from, what our past was like, but the past doesn't matter. What matters is who you are now, not who you were 5 years ago. You're a good person. That's why I like you."

I felt the sincerity in her voice and conceded her statement with a hug.

"Um...is... is that a yes...?" she stammered.

"Yeah. That's a yes. I hope so," I joked. "Hey, uh, what day is it?"

"I think it's Thursday... yeah, I'm pretty sure."

"Okay, so tomorrow I'll take on the request you gave me, and probably another one if I have the time, and on Saturday we can go somewhere, if you're free then."

"Yeah, that's fine. Saturday, uh, where are we going?"

"I'll make it a surprise. You don't have to wear anything _too_ nice, even though I'm pretty sure you'd look good in anything."

"Aw, thanks. Yeah, I guess I could go casual."

"That's fine. What time?"

"Maybe around 7:00 in the afternoon, since I'll be at the guild most of the day."

"That's good. Perfect. Right now, I think I need to get some sleep. I haven't slept in a long time."

"Well, get as much rest as possible. You _do_ need to rest after training so hard all this time. You need a break now and then. I know you're trying to push yourself hard, but don't push yourself _that_ hard, otherwise you won't gain anything."

"Thanks, mom," I joked. Mira chuckled. "How do you know all this?"

"Oh, because of my brother Elfman. He always talks about being manly and how rest builds muscle and makes you even manlier."

"Speaking of Elfman, should you tell him about us? What do you think his reaction would be?"

"Oh. I never thought of that. I'm sure he'll say something about your manliness, but I don't know for sure."

"Okay... I guess. Alright Mira, I'm gonna go catch some Z's, as I'm sure you have to as well."

"Alright, goodnight Vinny."

"Goodnight. See you tomorrow." We exited the guild and parted ways, leaving me to walk back to my house. But I couldn't stand to walk all the way back to my house, so I made things simpler for me by teleporting back, where I stepped inside and fell right on my bed in my clothes, ignoring how uncomfortable it was.

I was too happy to let it bother me.


	41. Chapter 41: The Date

The next day was Friday, meaning I could get a lot of things done before Saturday evening, before my date with Mira. I had hoped to take on a few quests, at least 2 before the day was over. I couldn't stop thinking about my training, but I tried my best to focus more on the upcoming date despite the fact that I was about to take on a request.

The quest was same as usual, a monster wreaking havoc that I had to smash, them a high paying reward. I was worried about getting beat up too badly which then I'd look too trashy to go on a date. I also didn't want to be wearing my jacket, which then would just be tacky. Maybe a T-shirt under a casual short sleeve button-down shirt would look fine. I didn't have a button-down shirt on me, so I teleported back home real quick and got the shirt I needed from my room. Mom wasn't home and I didn't have a key, so I ended up Shadow Switching through the crack under the door.

I unfolded the request paper for the first time and saw the reward was 605,000 Jewel to eliminate a tough horde of canyon dwelling monsters causing trouble for people who dare cross it. A pretty simple task, and a very good reward as well.

As I flew on the back of Fearow to the site, I started thinking about the quest I had just gone on with Erza. Well, we were technically there to bring Natsu and the gang back, but I wondered if she would ever consider taking me on an S-Rank quest someday with her, considering she was an S-Class Mage and I wasn't. I had no clue on how to become one, maybe by demonstrating a feat of strength, but I didn't know how that would happen. How could I prove I could take on an S-Rank quest if I couldn't take one on in the first place? I couldn't do regular quests forever. At the moment, they were still a bit difficult, but they would soon become too easy. I had completed a lot of requests ever since I stared at the guild, but not once did someone mention me becoming an S-Class wizard. It made no sense, but those were the rules. I had to follow them. Otherwise there would be punishment. I didn't even want to know what the punishment was, either.

As I landed at the site, a dark cave, I started wondering when I would face off against that crazy murderer Elementia. I had never actually seen what he looked like, because in my nightmares he was always a shadowy figure. Then I began wondering if he could hear my thoughts, if he was implanted in my brain somehow, and how. Maybe my dad had a blood pact with him back then, and Elementia's DNA had somehow gotten into my blood. A stream of other weird and/or bloody thoughts began invading my brain, which I had to drain out of my head immediately and focus on the mission at hand. I must've failed at ridding those thoughts from my brain, because I began ridiculing myself, thinking, _What the hell am I thinking, blood pact? Tch. The way I think sometimes._

The request had a picture of a dark cave which was said to be the location of the horde of monsters. Flaming fist at the ready, both as a source of light and form of defense, I marched into the cave expecting an instant ambush of ferocious demons. Looking at the paper for a description of the monsters, all I saw was, "...big monsters..." and no further context. Yeah, real helpful. Most to all of the monsters I fought were more often than not, huge. Larger than my Giga Evolution. Speaking of, I wasn't planning on using that Evolution unless as a last resort. For the time being, my uncontrollable Giga Evolution was my trump card until I learned to control it to what I want it to do, to not become a mindless rampaging monster for however long it lasted.

The cave was dark, very dark indeed. My flame almost made no difference and I may have just as well have gone in the complete darkness. The only light was the now ever faint growing light of day and my dim... flame sounds like an overstatement, how about ember? A mere spark in the complete blackness. That's what my flame was compared to the massive, enveloping, swallowing darkness, and I was its next meal.

"Oh, you..." I muttered, followed by a quite audible echo. "Oh you, you greedy darkness you, is a diet of monsters not enough?" It was a stupid remark, but I wasn't focusing on the fact that every word I spoke would be greatly amplified by the hollow, resounding echo that followed. I wasn't being smart by speaking thus far into the cave, then I realized I could take advantage of that and lure the monsters out of the cave so I could see them when fighting, instead of being beaten around in the dark like a punching bag. A blind punching bag. Using Shadow Switch, I teleported instantly to the mouth of the cave, then jumped out of the shadow and made as much noise as possible, in case any of the monsters were in the cave.

However, the noise was all for naught, because the monsters had already caught up to me a few seconds after I jumped out of the shadows. A massive punch sent me flying back into the cave, where I was met by another punch in the gut by another monster, causing me to writhe and shrivel up like a ball. Before the monsters could get another hit on me, I dropped into the shadows to recover. I took some time to take a full look at the monsters, and the paper said that they would only attack at night, but had an incredible sense of hearing, and could hear a person walking from miles away. _But if they're nocturnal, would that mean that they can't go in the sunlight_? I thought. The pain had subsided, and I had an idea. Whether it was sunlight or light at all, I had a good idea.

I moved further into the cave where the monsters had moved away from, since they still thought I was near the mouth of the cave. Jumping out of the shadow, I Mega Evolved and began charging a Giga Flame Ball. The flame was like a main sequence star: the hotter the star gets, the brighter. The monsters began to notice the bright light emitting from the Flame Ball and began shielding their eyes, running away from the light, straight into the light, of day. It worked! I had pushed the monsters out of the cave, blinding them by the sunlight. They could no longer see, so I took the opportunity to throw the Giga Flame Ball at them, horribly singeing them. I was still in the cave, watching them hilariously swipe away at nothing.

"Haha! Ah, don't worry! I'll end all your sufferings!" I began charging Flare Laser, but then I felt a massive blow from behind, sending me flying out of the cave into the horde of monsters at high speed, blasting them all away as I continued to shoot forward at speed, eventually hitting the opposite wall of the canyon. The figure that kicked me out of the cave rushed up to kick me even further into the wall. This monster, I assumed was their leader.

"You DARE hurt my children?! You must now pay with your life!" it howled.

"How?" I groaned. "How are you not being blinded by the glorious rays of the sun?"

"I can adjust my vision based on how bright it is. I am more adaptable than the rest of my group. That is why I am their leader. If anyone dares trespass on our territory, they must pay with their lives. No one has ever gotten away with that, and neither will you!" He (because it had a masculine voice) tried landing a punch on me, but I took advantage of the sun's position casting a long shadow on the ground. Switching to his shadow left him angered and confused.

"Where have you gone? Show yourself!" He bellowed. I quickly jumped out of his shadow when his back was turned, and before he could notice me, I encased him in a small space using Pillar Stone. Though it only stopped him for a few seconds, that small window of time was all that was needed to land a massive blow on him with Hammer Fist. It definitely hurt him, but didn't kill him. I did my best to dodge whatever attacks he threw at me, but occasionally I failed to, which turned into me getting hit more often.

"Guuhh!" Another attack made me fly back, making dents in the rocky ground. I had Destroyed my jacket prior, foreseeing a tough fight. But this fight was tougher than I expected. I didn't want my jacket to get messed up, but in return, my shirt was getting filthy and ripped up. Good thing I saw this coming.

"You are pissing me off, human. It's time for you to die." With his gargantuan fist, he threw another powerful punch down onto my limp body on the ground. Luckily, I was able to roll out of the way in time and dodge far enough away to be able to aim my attack at him.

"Hydro Vortex!" A whirl of water blasted out from my fists that were over my mouth as if I were shooting a blowgun, knocking the monster forcefully onto its back. While he was down, I finished the fight by jumping extra high into the air, forming a sword out of flames; Flare Sword.

"Hyyaaahh!" Holding the sword down facing his head, my falling speed created enough force to jeam the sword right through his head, killing him instantly. His body shriveled up and turned black, reducing into a blue energy orb which got absorbed by my body. After I found my employer and gathered my reward, I returned to the guildhall to pick up another request.

All eyes stared at me the moment I stepped through the door. I was confused at first, but then remembered my scars and bruises and ripped up clothes. Just for reassurance, I Summoned my fedora and put it back on my head. After that, most of everyone went back to their business.

The moment I sat down at the bar, "Oh my goodness! What on earth?! Those monsters must've given you quite the beating!" exclaimed Mira.

"Eh, I'm alright. It didn't hurt a lot. Maybe got the wind knocked out of me sometimes, some kicks and punches here and there, but that's about it." Makarov wasn't in his usual spot I noticed, so I naturally assumed he was on important business. I wasn't too worried about it.

I took a little break for a bit to talk to Mira, asking some questions about S-Class, about the guild's past, and about her. You know, getting to know things.

"I know I got this jacket a few months ago, but I might consider switching it out again. I mean, styles will change; I won't keep this style forever. I feel like the leather jacket doesn't match my style. I'm starting to wonder what would go with this fedora and scarf. Hell, I don't even know why I'm wearing a scarf in the middle of spring," I said.

"That kind of depends on what style you're going for. Are you going a more causal look, or maybe formal?" Mira suggested.

"I don't know... I kinda want something in between, but I don't know what that'd be. I don't have much of a fashion sense."

"Hm. I could think about it too, do you mind?"

"I don't really know what you mean by that."

"Well, you'll see."

 _'I'll see?'_ I pondered _. Sounds like she's planning to get me what I'm looking for, but how do I respond to that? What if she's planning something completely different?_ Immediately, unconfident feelings began invading my mind, making me worry and overthink everything. _No, don't worry about it. Whatever happens will happen. Simple._ But it wasn't as simple as that. How could I stop thinking about this important day, and what could go wrong? I was only human, or at least half, so I would make mistakes. So would Mirajane. That would be that.

The rest of the day was made eventful by the help of two more quests, both combined not paying as much as the one previously completed. The first was some giant who was going around, feasting off of livestock. Ugh. I could imaging a ten foot tall ogre type of beast, sweeping cows and other farm animals off their hooves, bones crunching, meat mashing messily between the terrible beasts' insatiable jaws.

It turns out, the beast wasn't an ogre, but almost sort of a lizard/dragon like Godzilla. It wasn't necessarily huge, but large enough to give me a tough challenge. So, imagine I was fighting a much smaller version of Godzilla mixed with a lion or fox or something. It was three times my size, forcing me to Giga Evolve in order to have a fair advantage against it. I didn't hold back against the monster this time, but despite this, it was still tough to defeat. It had regenerative powers, regenerating even when using a powerful attack on its head. After some time of futilely destroying some of its body parts and studying its attack patterns, I found that it regenerated from its heart, but not just the heart itself, but from its stomach, most likely due to the energy it gained from feeding off livestock. My Giga Evolution was starting to take its toll on me, so I hastily tried to find a way to destroy it completely, without causing harm to the village nearby. A very powerful and misjudged attack would cause the whole town to go up in flames, so I resorted to a less violent but no less powerful move, Magma Core. Doing my best to trap the beast in a closed area by using Pillar Stone, I cornered it and began encasing it in a sphere of molten hot lava, reaching temperatures to rival that of the planet's core. The terrible creature screamed in agony as its body slowly began disintegrating from the lava faster than it could regenerate, eventually burning both its gurgling stomach and vigorously thumping heart. I nearly passed out by overdoing it with Giga Evolution again, but I noticed that I was able to endure the pressure a bit longer than before, without passing out at the end of it. Granted, I was on the verge, but I saw this as the next step to mastering my Evolutions. I felt that there may be more evolutions after Giga Evolution, as I had seen in my first lucid Elementia nightmare.

Off and on, I felt feelings of anger and fright, discouragement and determination, all from thinking about how I may never be strong enough to face Elementia, how he killed my father and the rest of the Charizard Legion, how he could still absolutely crush me at the current state I was in, but ultimately deciding that what I was doing still wasn't enough, and that pushed me enough to keep going.

The next quest was a bit easier than the previous, not forcing me to use Giga Evolution. It was easier because I was now facing a massive behemoth that was threatening a city in a valley pretty far from Magnolia, a demon with pale green skin as hard as concrete and veins as large as ropes found on a barge, pulsating out from behind its massive muscles like water forcefully pushing through a hose. Now, I know you're thinking, wouldn't a huge demon be harder to defeat? Think of it this way. It's pretty damn hard to swat a mosquito, isn't it? No? What if the mosquito was flying ten times its regular speed? That mosquito was me and Fearow as we buzzed around the huge demon at high speeds thanks to my firepower blasting out of my hands, essentially acting as a demon soon noticed our presence and naturally began swinging its arms around, mildly annoyed. According to the job request, I was to prevent the demon from destroying one of the towns which the request came from, meaning that the request had been sent from many towns that were in danger of destruction. To hold the monster back as much as possible while I tried to defeat it, I sent Mewtwo and Tyranitar to push the demon's feet back; Tyranitar pushing the grounded legs, Mewtwo on the lifted legs. I sent out Breloom, having Tyranitar toss him up into the air to unleash a flurry of attacks on its stomach. It worked, and the monster was sent back a little, until it realized what was going on and forcefully smacked them out of the way.

"Woah! Hang in there guys!" I called to them. Flying Fearow down to the ground, I stepped off of him and Mega Evolved, but as said before, I wasn't forced to use Giga Evolution, as a few good attacks were enough. Starting by slicing off its limbs was proven a dangerous task, trying to dodge blows from the monster as best as possible, although I was more focused on attacking rather than defending, so I got knocked down quite a lot by the angry monster. The sun began setting over the orange lit horizon as a friendly reminder that I needed to finish this quest quickly. Pinning me to the ground, the demon began punching me furiously into the ground. And although it didn't hurt much, the continuous punches caused my rage to build. Using Pillar Stone, one of my most useful spells, jagged stone pillars rose up diagonally around me in between one of its attacks, allowing me to roll out of the way, charge up a Giga Flame Ball, and hurl it at the monster, all in quick succession. Then immediately after, I sliced off both of its arms (I had previously sliced off its legs before it began pounding me to the ground) and it roared in agony, only stopping after I froze its head with Freeze Wave and then shattered the ice casing with Titanium Fist. After returning my Pokémon, the monster was reduced to nothing more than a ball of energy. The energy was converted into magic by the Book of Magic, making a new Ice spell appear; Blizzard Crash. Curious to see the new spell, I held out my hand facing upwards, then thousands of razor sharp, medium sized ice spikes formed in the suddenly cold air, whirling around in a mighty storm, slowly closing in to the center when I closed my fist, then dissipating completely once all the ice had reached the center. I assumed the ice would probably cut the opponent even if they were trying to be careful, then hopefully, since they couldn't escape, get impaled or damaged by the spikes as they spun inward. Not bad, and I would hopefully find use for it in the future.

It had turned to nighttime, and vast array of bright points in the pitch black sky rose over the east horizon. I checked my phone. 10:13. I hoped that the guild was open, so I could go see Mirajane. I didn't forget to get my reward from the town that I saved, from the young employer who looked about in her late 20's, early 30's, maybe. Heading back to Magnolia to the guild, I stepped in to see Mira doing some cleaning by the bar area. She looked up and smiled a little as I stepped in.

"Hey," she sighed.

"Hey Mira. What's up?" I replied, noticing something different in her normally cheerful tone.

"Ugh, I don't even think I should… ah, alright, fine. I'll tell you."

"What? Are you okay? What happened while I was gone?"

"Oh boy. Let me tell you."

I hadn't been back to the guild in between the two previous quests, so I didn't see the team return. Apparently, Natsu was impatient and went to look for a request on the board, in which there were strange letters that they had Levy decode in order for them to get the reward on the paper. Then once Levy decoded the paper, everyone's brains switched into different bodies; Natsu's brain into Loke's body, Erza to Happy, Gray to Lucy, but worst of all, Makarov to Mira. Poor Mirajane! I couldn't imagine how Makarov reacted to his brain being switched over, probably not well, but Mira into Makarov's short body? It must've been torturous. As she finished the story, I had the freedom to yawn, moments later contagiously causing her to mimic my actions, indicating that we should rest. After the day that both of us had, we definitely needed it.

The next day, I was able to complete a very rewarding, but nevertheless difficult request worth about as much as the cave monsters quest. I couldn't help but notice, as I put a shirt on that morning, the deep gashes on my chest from the volcano monster from my first monster hunting quest had fully healed, but left behind three, very noticeable scars running diagonally, from the bottom of my left pec down to the bottom right side of my abs. It didn't hurt, maybe itched a little. I also noticed that my muscles were beginning to take form, after resting for a bit. So, resting my muscles was not bad after all.

My overall performance was greater, I realized, than before, or during my training. During my training, I assumed I was overworking myself so I couldn't grow as fast and I was now starting to the see results. I tried a few laps around Magnolia, noticing that my stamina and speed was much greater than before. Going back to my training just a bit, I traveled out to a field where I could spar with each of my Pokémon, asking them not to hold back against me. The results were outstanding, compared to before. My reaction time was much faster than before, but all my Pokémon teamed up against me were nearly matched with me without my Book of Magic and Mega or Giga Evolution. Most of them had a hard time landing physical attacks on me, in which they resorted to special attacks that wouldn't directly hurt them, not including Tyranitar. He couldn't hurt his hands, because they were tough enough to punch steel, not that it hurt my skeleton. I did feel pain, however, because Tyranitar didn't hold back and attacked me as if I was his worst enemy. Getting hit in the abdomen really knocked the wind out of me, and made me vomit all over the ground, the bitter bile burning the back of my throat, causing me to continuously cough. He still didn't let up, but I was able to get out of the way in time. I wasn't allowed to use my Shadow Magic to Shadow Switch to recover; I was only allowed to use my bare fists and regular power. None of them let up, giving me a real challenge. I nearly ran out of stamina and lost consciousness, but ended the fight by jumping around to each of them, attacking them until their stamina was low, then ended it with a much larger Flame Shield when they tried to get up close to me all at once. This new, explosive attack I dubbed Flare Dome, an update to a moderately old attack. Storing more fire in my body than before, I slammed my fist to the ground, activating the attack and causing a massive, fiery explosion in a large radius that wouldn't be easy to escape in time. This training bout lasted about two hours, with a five minute break in between. The first half hour was merely a refresher, maybe a bit of horseplay at some times, and it was only in the beginning of latter half that they began taking the bout seriously.

The amount of change I saw by giving my Pokémon rest as well was outstanding. They showed that they were giving it their all, and I could tell. Their reactions were quick, their strength was incredible, as well as speed, evasiveness, stamina and they all looked the part as well, much larger in muscle. Fearow had grown just a tad since we returned to the Regions, so I assumed the flight back had done it. Breloom's legs were the most improved out of all of my Pokémon, as well as his small arms which were more visible than before. Pikachu's legs were more shaped, making him the fastest on my whole team. He was a literal little bolt of lightning. Gyarados' jaws were much larger than before, and Mewtwo's muscles were also very well shaped. But most of all, Tyranitar's arms and legs were bigger, his broad chest being the most improved, being my strongest, most heavyweight Pokémon. I was reminded again that I should never overwork myself and my Pokémon.

xxxx

Our training continued until 7:00. Half an hour beforehand, I teleported back to my house, quickly sliding off my jacket and changing my t-shirt with a dark blue shirt and my button down, rolling up the sleeves to look a bit more casual. I felt the need to gel my hair, but after running it under some water and drying, it looked alright, even bough I hadn't showered in a few days. I would need a haircut sometime. Maybe I would ask Mira where a place was, because the only one I remember was in Lumiose, Kalos. My hair looked like it could be whipped wildly like a rockstar, but combing and running my fingers through made it seem better, but it would often fall down. I decided to put just a little bit of gel in my hair, just so it would stay. Getting gel required me to go back home, because I had run out.

"Hello? Oh, welcome home sweetie!" Mom answered the door after I knocked. "Did you leave something at home?"

"Yeah. Well first of all, I missed you a ton," I said, bending down a bit to wrap my arms around her.

"Ooh. I missed you too, sweetie. You look nice, what's the occasion?"

"I know Mom. I'm, uh... I'm going on a date."

"Aw! With who? Who's the lucky lady?" she teased.

"Mom, stop it...!" I chuckled. "You wouldn't know her, of course, but her name is Mirajane."

"Well, If you're going anywhere, you need to do something about the hair, young man. You need to look presentable."

"I know, I was just getting to that. I need hair gel. Is there an extra tin of it laying around somewhere?"

"Yes, there's one upstairs in the bathroom. Also, you need a haircut. You should be able to take care of these things."

"Yes, I know that Mom!" I called as I rushed upstairs to look for a can of hair gel. There seemed to be a few of them under the sink next to mom's curling iron and facial soap. Working a bit into my hair, it made it a thousand times better than before and I didn't look emo. I slid downstairs after Destroying the gel and washing my hands.

"You look stunningly handsome," said Mom. "Hold on..." she reached forward and adjusted my collar, making sure I looked my best. "Good luck sweetie, my boy Vincent, so strong, so grown up now... you've changed so much... good luck on your date, sweetie!" she called after me out the door.

I put my jacket and fedora back on just so people wouldn't suspect that I was on a date once I returned to the Magnolia. I didn't bother putting on my scarf, as it was too warm for that.

Opening the door...

Mira was not there. I panicked for a second, because I thought that she had bailed out on me. There weren't a lot of people there, Natsu and Gray were at their throats as usual, and Erza seemed to be resting her eyes. Happy was munching away at a fish, Makarov sat like a statue on the countertop, and few other people were sitting around, chatting and the like.

"Hey Vinny." I turned around, half expecting Mira to be there, but it was just Lucy.

"Oh. Hey," I muttered.

"If you're wondering where Mira is, she went home to get ready. You're a lucky guy, Vin."

I breathed a little sigh. "So you know?" I asked.

"I'm pretty sure everyone in the guild knows. Mirajane was being pestered with questions all day, asking about your date with her." _So there's no use in trying to hide it_ , I thought, feeling a little embarrassed.

"Oh, by the way, how was the punishment...?" I asked with a devilish smile. However, to my surprise, Lucy wasn't really fazed too much.

"I never found out. Natsu read this one quest that switched everyone's brain."

"Yeah, Mira told me about that. But that stopped you from getting a punishment...?"

"Apparently."

I had an impulse to check the board, but I felt it would be rude, considering I was about to go on a date and all. However, the more I tried to suppress that impulse, the more it roared at me, finally I had to check the request board, to which I found nothing to my liking. No monster requests, no interesting quests at all.

"Whatever," I muttered.

20 minutes later at 7:00, Mira still hadn't shown up yet. I knew she was getting ready, but I didn't realize that she meant exactly 7:00, on the dot.

Actually, she didn't mean 7:00 on the dot, either. I was waiting about 10 minutes afterward.

Which turned into 20 minutes.

Then 25.

Then 30.

"Hey, Lucy? Do you remember when Mirajane left to get ready?"

"I don't know, I wasn't here when she left. When I came in, she had already left."

When my question went unanswered the first time, I asked Natsu.

"Hm? I dunno. I was on a quest with Lucy. Erza was on her own quest," replied Natsu.

"You wanna know when she left? Why, you getting impatient?" said Gray when I asked him.

"What do you care? I just wanna know when she left to get ready, that's all."

"I don't know for sure. I think about 6:20, I don't know the exact time."

How long does it take to get ready...? I thought. Granted it's for a date, but does it really take that long? I guess girls are different than guys.

"I'm gonna go wait outside," I muttered.

"No one's stopping you," said Gray.

"Shut up. No one asked for further input," I retorted as I found my way to the exit.

The evening air was cool and beautiful like a rose petal gently caressing my face. In the west, the sun was still high, but would soon cease to remain suspended in the grand pink and orange expanse. As I stared at the immense canvas of sky, I began to get lost in my thoughts, thinking about the future, thinking again about what I would do after defeating Elementia, places I've never been that I may travel to, how powerful I would grow after that, maybe I would reform the Legion, or start a new organization for more than just Charizard. I would call it the National Pokémon Alliance. It would include more than just the strongest of Pokémon, but train the weaker ones to become strong, to defend the world from evil. If I tried to eradicate evil by myself, god knows how long that would take. But then again, I thought if I did it by myself, I would be remembered as a hero after I passed.

Suddenly, I heard panting, accompanied by the clicking of high heeled shoes on the pavement, snapping me out of my thoughts, back into reality.

"Vin...Vincent! *huff* I'm sorry I'm late! I had to-*huff*- I needed a lot of time to get -*huff*- to get ready...!" From my right, Mirajane called to me, speaking between breaths. Once I turned to look at her, call it really corny but I was momentarily stunned by her her beauty. She wore a different dress than the one she usually wore; still red, but came up her left shoulder and not her right. It was one of those dresses where a bit of the thigh is visible, opposite of the side where the dress came up over the shoulder. Her long hair was put into an intricate bun held up by a stick, with a bit of hair coming down in front of her ears. Speaking of, I saw some earrings hidden behind her hair. She didn't wear a lot of makeup, maybe just a bit of cheek blush, and a tad bit of eye shadow and eyeliner. She looked nevertheless beautiful, but I honestly thought she looked more beautiful without makeup on. She wore high heels, but not too high that she couldn't run all the way here.

"H-*huff*-how do I look?" she asked. I didn't know how to immediately respond to that.

"I-I mean... how do you look...? Jeez, if I had to find the right words, that'd take more words than I've ever spoken in my life. To be honest... I mean, don't get me wrong, you look absolutely stunning, but maybe a bit overdressed. You're making me feel super informal and underdressed." As I spoke, I removed my jacket and fedora and showed her what I was wearing. I was worried she wouldn't like it or something, but a few seconds later she said, "You look dashingly handsome... Dang it, I knew I should've gone more casual...!"

"It's fine! It's alright. You look fine to me. Well, more than just fine. It's like..." I thought about what to say for a second. "You look as if you rose from sea foam like Venus. You look like a goddess, honestly. Now, I'm not saying it looks bad in that you look better without makeup. It's alright, though." I looked back at her face, which she looked overjoyed to hear me say that which I had just said. In fact, she was so happy to hear it that she stepped forward and embraced me tight.

"Thanks for being honest with me," her voice tingled close to my ear, tickling a bit.

"It's no problem. You're absurdly gorgeous. Don't think otherwise. What do you say we begin the date...?" I smiled.

"Hasn't it already begun?" teased Mira.

"I suppose you're right. Alright, so I haven't planned out where we're going, but we can go wherever you want."

"Hmm..." she hummed in thought. "You know what I haven't eaten in a while?"

"What would that be?"

"Ramen. Ramen noodles."

I smiled big, hoping she'd say that.

"You know, I was thinking the exact same thing."

xxxx

"Ha! So what did he say next?" I laughed. It was 9:16, Fiore time. We had eaten dinner at a ramen place in a neighboring town to Magnolia, and were sitting at the bar drinking sake. Don't worry. Laws in Fiore allow drinking at 18. I had just turned 18 a few months ago, and Mira was 19, so we were good.

"He said, he said, 'I'm a man! I don't do that puny stuff! Humph!'" Mira imitated Elfman in the deepest voice she could manage. "You said, uh, what's his name...?"

"Tyranitar, right? He's kinda like Elfman in a way, I said."

"Yeah! And what did he say?"

"Okay, okay. Lemme give an example. One time during my training, he was being ludicrous by trying to act like a grown up, even though he's like, 10 years old in human years, which would be like, half that in large Pokémon years. I'm telling you! He's just like Elfman! I don't remember exactly what he said, but he was tryna be all manly like, 'I'm too good for y'all. I'm stronger than all of you, I'll make a man out of each and every one of you!' Sometimes he forgets that I'm the trainer here, and he likes ordering the others around. Not bullying, but like a drill sergeant."

"Oh my gosh! That's exactly Elfman! He doesn't just talk about it, either. He leads by example." Mira seemed to be getting red in the cheeks, and it wasn't the cheek blush she was wearing either.

A while later...

"Hahaha! Then he was like, 'I'm better than you! Die!'" I said, causing Mira to burst into peals of laughter.

"Hey, -hee hee!- your face looks a little red, Vinny."

"Oh, -hahaha!- really? I wonder if I can walk straight."

To test my drunkness, I rose out of my seat and tried walking in a straight line. It was weird. I was walking mostly straight, but I was constantly dizzy, and my face felt warm and throbbed. The throbbing wasn't painful, though. Trying to stand in one place was futile, as I kept almost falling over. Mira saw this as a fun game and tried doing the same, but especially with heels on, she had trouble standing. Then she fell flat on her bottom, which normally, I would've been concerned and helped her up, but everything was funny. As with Mira. When she fell on her behind, she began laughing her ass off, and then I began laughing as well. I still helped her up, though. I seemed to be as drunk than her, maybe because she had a whole bottle and a half, and I had half a bottle. It was probably due to the fact that I had never had any alcohol before, making me go drunk more easily. And I liked to think she had at least some alcohol some times before. But everything felt... good. I felt like I was floating, sort of. I had yet to take her to that surprise place I said we would go to, because it was probably still early evening over in the Regions.

"Hahahahaha!" I cried. "A-alright, Mira! Let's... go! On an adventure!"

"Okay! Let's do this! Where're we going...?"

"You'll see! Hold on to my arm. And let's... -hic- let's... fly! Dimension Switch!" Performing a rather sloppy, but still effective Switch, we were able to teleport to our destination.

"Huh. Wasn't it -hic- almost nighttime a few seconds ago?" questioned Mira as we appeared at the destination, a vast field of beautiful, vibrant flowers.

"Yeah. It was, but we're in a different -hic- time zone. This is my home Region."

"Your home is a field of flowers...? Hahahaha-hic!" Even though it wasn't at all funny, I still laughed at that.

"No! Haha! Uh, no. We're in Floaroma Town. This is one of my most favorite places in the whole world. I love -hic- seeing the sun set over the horizon amongst a vast field of fragrant flowers."

Mira looked off into the horizon at the slow descending sun.

"It's beautiful... -hic.- it's so beautiful... I love sunsets, they make me feel warm and good. Hic." Mira hiccuped again.

"Wanna see something even more beautiful, later...? Hic."

"Something even more beautiful? Can anything -hic- be prettier than this?"

"Well, we can watch the sun go -hic- down for now. I'll show you what I'm talking about once the sun sets fully."

There we sat for the next few hours, talking, laughing uncontrollably at times due to our drunkenness not showing to be wearing off any time soon. We started running around a bit, ignoring the fact that we were technically adults and should be acting as such. It was fun to blow off some steam and have fun for a while.

"Vincent…!" called Mira, who was basically in heaven at the moment. She ran to me and fell into my arms.

"Hm? Yes m'darling?" I replied in a silly voice.

"I'm so heavy…! I can't stand…" With that, she pushed my over, falling on top of me. Drunkenly feeling like I should be dominant, I rolled over on top, laughing my ass off. Mira took this as a sign to win dominance over me, but my drunk self couldn't allow that, and we rolled all over the field, trying to get on top of each other, laughing like crazy lunatics, two crazy, drunk love birds wrestling each other in an orange lit, sun setting field. I felt like we would literally die from laughing.

"Hahahahahaha! I've claimed my rightful place again!" shouted Mira in peals of laughter.

"Hahaha… okay, I concede defeat… you wore me out." She hadn't, as I had a lot more stamina, but I acted tired out of courtesy.

"Yayyy! I win! Hahahaha...!" Mira quickly brought her face down and gave me playful smooch. Which caused a brief moment of awkwardness on my part, but after that moment which seemed like an eternity ended, Mira brought her face closer to mine a bit slower, and we shared our first, albeit drunk, kiss. A fiery passion swept through both of us as our interlocked lips danced, a slow waltz that seemed to freeze time itself, snapping us back into reality and out of our drunkenness for a short time. It was my first time noticing that Mira was a mess. Her hair was all ruffled, her dress a little out of place, and her makeup was slightly smeared, but I didn't care about that, because we were having the time of our life.

Mira slowly disconnected our lips, gazing into my eyes intently. "Let's have some more fun…" Her drunkenness returned, and she wanted to have a different kind of fun. My senses hit me hard, realizing what she meant, so I tried to ease her out of it without driving her away.

"Mira, no. I understand you're drunk-" she cut off my words my placing her lips back onto my mouth, a new vibe washing over us. I didn't like where this was going. If we weren't careful, we could get carried away and something bad could happen. I had enough sense to realize that.

"Mrra!" I shouted into her mouth, which she took as the signal to stop. She disconnected after a few seconds, panting hard.

"What, you don't want to have some fun…?" she whispered, giving me a sexy look, which I pushed aside.

"LIsten, Mira. I like you a lot, but we can't go there yet. For one, this is our first date, so if something happens between us, then that would be really bad. You get what I'm saying?"

"Aw, come on! You're no fun. What's wrong with a little... affection?" It was totally strange seeing Mira behave this way in the first place, but then talking about intimacy, now I knew that alcohol probably had a bad effect on her. I thought about it, and realized that I had talked her into having a drink with me, and she was hesitant. Yet I insisted. I wouldn't make that mistake in the future.

"Mirajane. Stop it." I rolled over carefully as to not accidentally crush her, and rose up, giving her a hand as well. "We can be in a relationship, but we can't do anything stupid. Look at me." She wouldn't make eye contact, and closed her eyes and looked away, in a pouty attitude. "Mira, come back to reality for a sec. I wanna show you that beautiful thing I was talking about." Her face lit up just a tad.

"What is that thing? Is it hot…?"

"Mira, stop acting like that. I know you're drunk and your senses are a little dulled, but you still know what's going on, right?"

"Ehh… a little… I'm funny, aren't I?" she giggled, clinging onto my arm. _She's just drunk. She doesn't usually act like this. She doesn't know what's going on. She's just drunk. She's just drunk_ , I repeated in my mind.

"Mira, if you're tired, I can take you home. Do you wanna go home?"

"No…! I wanna… I wanna see the beautiful thing. What is it? Does it have to do with you?"

"No. It has absolutely nothing to do with me-"

"Is it your muscular chest? Can I see your muscles?" She cut me off, her voice becoming more and more slurred, meaning she was very tired. But she seemed to want to stay up. By this time, I was still a bit drunk, but it had worn off quite a bit.

"Mira, don't-" She cut me off by putting her cold hand underneath my shirt, making me jump. "Eek!"

"...Hahahahahaha! What kinda… what kind of yelp was that…?"

"Mira, stop it!"

"Damn, you have rock hard abs! Vincent… let's get closer…" She started up with the kinkiness again, to which I put a stop to again.

"Mira, it's alright for us to be close, but that's a different kind of close." I felt like a parent educating a first grader on the birds and the bees. I tried to ignore it for a while because she was drunk.

"I know what that means!" she said, indignantly, though I saw no reason why she was indignant at all, since she was the one trying to get it with me. And I thought it would be the other way around, normally with other guys, but I have morals too. Even if I'm technically a monster inside. I had the idea to fly up high on Fearow so we could see the lights of the Regions, the gorgeous night city lights, so Summoning him, I told him the conditions, and he laughed, almost looked shocked when I said that she was drunk and wanted to do it with me.

"Fearow. Fearow, Fear-Fearow." _You're a lucky dude. Sure, if I'm strong enough to hold both of you._

"Oh, come on. If you can carry me just fine without much strain, surely you can carry me and someone much lighter than I am," I scoffed.

"Fear, Fearow." _Well, Climb on._

Helping Mira onto Fearow's back seated behind me, we flew off like a majestic golden pegasus-pulled chariot of the gods, soaring into the night sky like a grand jet. Once we were high enough, the lights of Hearthome City came into view over the mountain, and higher up we were soon able to see the entirety of Sinnoh, and the distant regions to the south. Above the cloud layer, the moon slowly began to rise up from the sea, a mystic pearl borne of the waters, to begin its long journey through the black, star-spotted sky. Although, it was not entirely black, for the ambient light from below pierced the clouds, creating a visible aura around the majestic dragon on the sea, as if every soul residing on it resonated as one. Mira no longer had any trouble staying awake, for no creature who walked the world could escape such beauty as this; this gorgeous being, bathed in an ocean of white, surrounded by calm, stirring waters.

"Is this..." Mira could not simply articulate, nor comprehend such majesty. "...heaven...?"

For this description alone could not seal one's mind at the sight, more beautiful than words could ever reach. It was beyond even peace, a new reality where we could only simply marvel at this being, where time was meaningless; what only existed was what lay before our eyes in that moment. Mira joined me in this reality, temporarily sober, and gaped in complete awe as the being stared back at us, creating a seemingly endless loop of passion. Fearow's wings flapped rhythmically as he carried both us easily. However, not even the most beautiful things in life last forever, because after a while, Fearow began to strain, working himself hard to sustain us in the air. I took this as the sign for us to make a landing, otherwise we would plummet into the sea below. As difficult as it was to break my eyes free of this beauty, I allowed Fearow to make a landing in Newbark Town. We hopped off of Fearow and I returned him after commending him for his feat by petting him on the head, and thanking him for taking me and Mira up, then teleported us back to Magnolia in a simple fashion. I walked Mira back to her home, then returning home only after making sure she got into her dormitory safely.

It'd been a rather crazy night for a first date. It was the best night of my life up to this point, and I would remember it forever. I hoped to go on another date with Mira, making note to not get us drunk and to not get carried away. It was a good date, though. And we both had fun. As peaceful as it was, though, it wouldn't last forever. Meaning that it wouldn't last for more than a day. So with much reluctance, it was time to return to reality.

Because when I returned to the guild the next day, I was met by a horrible surprise.


	42. Chapter 42: The Destruction

Reality is harsh. Sometimes people won't like you for who you are. Sometimes people won't appreciate the things you do. Sometimes your actions are the cause of destruction. But sometimes it's not the best idea to run away from your problems, no matter how bad they are. Because if you become a fugitive to your issues, it will not only change your life, but the lives of those you meet, those you care about. If you run away from your problems, they'll only find you again, eventually...

...and in some cases destroy your guild.

It all happened overnight. When Mira and I had returned to Magnolia the previous night, the damage had not yet been done, still probably just being worked out, waiting to strike. What happened to the guild, you may be wondering. Imagine a sea urchin, except its spines are just straight up metal cylinders. In the middle, with the many spires jutting out from it lay the demolished guild hall. The destruction could be seen from pretty far away, and from my house which was on the west side of town, the tall metal cylinders could be seen. When I stepped out of my house at first, I had no idea what it was, even from upstairs, all that could be seen were the huge metal rods jutting out like a massive explosion of steel. Getting on Fearow to get a view from the air, the building itself was barely visible.

As I walked inside the building, I gaped at the terrific sight, tons of colossal metal rods puncturing the ceiling and walls. It was a rather irritating eyesore that awoke a familiar temper within.

"This is pissing me off, I'm gonna beat the crap out of whoever did this. I just hope that no one suspects it was me. Not like I could do something like this. My Steel Arts can't do this. Not yet, at least…" The ruined guild that surrounded me gave me a vision, a horrible thought that if I failed to erase evil from the face of the earth, then the future would look something like this.

I was suddenly frightened that everyone may have died or anything least gotten severely injured, then I heard distant voices. I wasn't sure where it was coming from, but then I realized for the first time that there was a basement floor, where all the voices seemed to be coming from.

Following the voices, I was extremely relieved to find out that everyone had been hanging out downstairs. The cellar looked like it was refurbished into a temporary bar, which reeked of booze and old wood. Makarov sat in his place he would normally would on the ground floor, his face red and flushed, looking unusually happy, making me question his and my sanity, how he could be happy in a time like this, and if I was actually seeing this.

Oh wait. He was drinking his problems away. Makes sense.

"Master Makarov...?" I spoke, hesitantly.

Makarov let out a loud, resounding belch. "Ah! Vincent! How _are_ you? Good to see you! Sit down and enjoy yourself!" I had no proper response to this, so I resorted to the main question.

"Makarov. What happened here?" I asked, addressing the elephant in the room.

"Who cares? Oop! Looks like I'm out of booze! Gotta go pee, again!" And he jumped off of the countertop and dashed away. I looked behind the counter at Mira, who didn't make eye contact at first. I became worried, because if she was going to chew me out or break up with me, I didn't know if I had done anything to make her, besides insisting that she drank with me the previous night.

"Mira...? Are you alright?" No response. I wasn't going to persist just in case I was making her uncomfortable, so I slowly rose up and said nothing, not even bothering to check the request board. Chances were, there wouldn't be a request there.

"I understand if you need some time alone, so I'll leave you be for the time being. You tell me if you need anything, okay?" I assured her, then turned to walk towards the stairs.

"W-wait!" called Mira as I began to walk away. I turned round to face her. "I-I'm sorry for yesterday, fo-for last night. I... I'm sorry you had to see that side of-" As she was talking, I slowly began walking towards her and placed my finger on her lip, then moving around the bar to meet her face to face.

"Mira. It's okay. I'm not mad. Are you mad? Did I provoke you at all or make you uncomfortable, in insisting that you have a drink with me? I'm sorry for making you. I'll never do that again."

"I-I'm not mad, but I'm sorry if I forced myself into you. I'm sorry. You didn't need to see that side of me."

"Mira, Mira. Shh. It's not your fault. You never would've acted that way if I hadn't provoked that kind of behavior. _I_ should be the one apologizing. I essentially forced you into doing something that you didn't want to do, and I'm sorry. Shh. It's not your fault." As I ceased to speak, I took her into my arms and caressed the back of her head comfortingly. "It's alright. You didn't know what you were doing. I won't do that to you again."

She looked up at my face with a look of relief/worry. "Thank you... but I still feel like I've done something wrong..."

"Don't worry about it. I know what not to do next time. We had fun, at least. Right?"

"You're right. That much is true. When are you thinking we should go out again?"

"Hm. I don't know... maybe after the guild is rebuilt, because after we find out who did this, then we still have to reconstruct the hall. That won't take too long, although if it does take long, then we can go out in between."

"You don't know who did this though, do you?"

"Probably wouldn't know them. Tell me, so I can kick their ass."

"It was another guild. Their name is Phantom Lord, and they're longstanding rivals of Fairy Tail. They're as destructive and wild as this guild, probably not on good terms with the Council, either. But Makarov thinks that the Council allowed this feud between guilds..."

"Really? I didn't know he was thinking anything in the matter at all! Who knew?" I scoffed sarcastically.

"Vincent, please. He's going through a rougher time as we all are."

"Alright, alright. I understand. But this guild... Phantom Lord, was it?" I clenched my fists tightly. "If they decide to attack one more time, they'll get a taste of me. I cannot let this stand. I can't. I won't."

"You can't take them all on at once though!" Mira exclaimed. "...sorry. Don't take this the wrong way, but you're just not strong enough against all of them. They're a really massive guild. Bigger than ours. Taking them on by yourself is asking for a death wish. None of us can do it alone. Not even Erza could do it by herself."

"...fine. But I still wanna kick their asses. I must. I might sound like Erza right now, but this is unacceptable and this cannot go unpunished."

Mirajane chuckled a little. "You're very much like her in a way."

"I suppose so, but now's no time to fool around with impressions. We have a bigger fish to fry."

"Hm. It's best to leave it alone for now. If we start a fight with the other guild, then it'll only cause more trouble."

"Hmph. Whatever. If they plan to mess with us again, I swear to god…" I clenched my fist, igniting it in flames, then smashing it into my metal hand. "I'll personally track down their guild and kill them all…!"

"Well, two wrongs don't make a right, you know. Let it go, Vincent. We don't want any trouble with them. This was only a minor inconvenience. We can fix it."

"Alright. I'll let it go for the time being. But mark my words."

"Marked." After she said that, we began to snicker nervously.

"Well for the day, I'm thinking about taking on a job request. I was kinda disappointed when other people didn't leave at least one for me, but I can't do all of them by myself, I realized. Other people should get a chance too." Right after I said that, I searched the request board and was lucky enough to find a monster hunting request. Didn't pay a crazy amount like the ones before, but it paid enough. A simple task: defeat a serpent that prevented people from swimming in the ocean. I would need Gyarados' help for this task.

And get Gyarados' help, I did. Having him Mega Evolve, I made him create a large whirlpool that summoned the serpent to the surface. It rose out of the water, a malevolent creature of sea green, with huge gaping jaws of a cobra and the tail of a dragon. A truly dangerous creature that gave even Gyarados a hard time. As if it was hard enough trying to balance on top of him, he constantly tried dodging the sea serpent as it chased after us, sending an plume of attacks our way; forcefully blasting water at me to try and knock me off, biting hard when it got close enough, not to mention its speed in the water as it continually pursued us.

"Damn... pest! Such a pain...! Gotta take care of it somehow, otherwise...!" Gyarados went over a wave on the salty tasting sea, causing my teeth to clash together and making a trickle of blood flow from my bitten tongue, spreading the metallic taste spread throughout my mouth.

"Ah! I got it! I don't know why I didn't think of this before, but I can use this! Lightning Magic: Discharge Pulse!" During a small window of time, I bravely dived into the water and executed the attack, electrocuting the sea serpent to death. Gyarados came in to pick me up, then the serpent's body reduced to nothing, leaving nothing but the energy ball to go pick up.

If only it were that easy.

Unsuspecting, as I went to collect the energy, a massive shark creature blasted out of the water and swallowed my prize, then diving back down into the water without even a thank-you-very-much. This angered me beyond belief, making me so angry, in fact, that I resorted to the strongest electric attack I knew.

"I won't let you get AWAY WITH THAT! Water Magic: Hydro Vortex!" First I used Hydro Vortex to create a large whirlpool in the waters, exposing the shark creature.

"I got you now you son of a bitch. Lightning Magic: Disaster Volt!" Jumping over the new whirlpool, electric power stored up in my hands, then expelling it downward, electrocuting the shark and everything around it in a great ball of lightning so bright that I couldn't see into the whirlpool at all, then a massive bolt of lightning followed by many upon many smaller bolts crashed down from the sky into the ball of electricity, creating an enormous explosion that swept outward in all directions, illuminating the mid afternoon sea and electrocuting all the surrounding waters. I only hoped that Gyarados would live through it. Once the storm died down, Gyarados was nowhere to be seen, and the whirlpool below me closed up, leaving me, suspended high in the air, to drop down into the water and sink faster than a barge. I began to sink, thinking that Gyarados was accidentally killed in the explosion, but just as I was about to drown, he came out of nowhere, carrying me to the surface.

"...haaahh...haaahh... I really need... I need an... Air Magic Spell... that lets me... breathe anywhere..." I panted.

"Grawrra?" _Are you okay?_ Asked Gyarados.

"Yeah... I just... I should be asking... are _you_ okay? How did you not get... electrocuted?"

"Grrooowr. Gyarro." _Swam away just in time. That was one hell of an attack._

"Thanks... whooo..." I took a deep breath before speaking again, feeling my heart pounding heavily in my chest. "Thanks for being there. I owe you one."

"Grawr. Grrowg." _You don't owe me anything. You're my trainer, after all._

"I guess so. It's about midday, let's go get something to eat, all of us."

"Grrowwg grww?" _We haven't trained in a while, does that mean our training is done?_

"Dude, _this is_ our training. That training before was to boost us, to make us stronger to take on these kinds of quests. This is our training. A chance to show off our skills and put them to use."

"Grawwg grrr!" _Oh, I get it now! Gyarados nodded his head._

"Right. Let's head back. I'm in the mood for barbecue or something."

After gaining my reward and a eating quick lunch, I looked for a quest that all my Pokémon could join in on. There was one, luckily, for a dragon-like demon that was a threat, yet again. I didn't care who it was threatening, just as long as I could train all my Pokémon. After this quest came another one for a man-beast that was attacking a town, and after that I returned to Magnolia, where it had turned to evening. The guild hall was closed, leaving me to go home for the night. I was tired, but kept myself awake long enough to crank out some exercises, where I was worlds stronger than I was previously. I don't wanna go into the details having already talked about my growth through exercise, where going into detail once more would simply be redundant. I will say though, that one handed push-ups were becoming a bit easier. I felt like the strongest mage, though I wasn't there yet. Not to mention, most of my power was fueled by anger...

… and a certain event taking place next morning would just about drive me off the edge, yet again.

xxxx

"You can't be serious… another attack?!" I yelled as I ran with Mira to the Southgate Park of Magnolia. She had heard news that someone from Phantom Lord had struck again, where I was expecting another act of vandalism, merely a nuisance to some, though I was ready to fight them. Like I said, one more incident and I was gonna beat the shit out of all of them.

Oh, but this was over the top.

Chained to the Southgate Park tree, bruised and battered and bloody was three members of our guild, Levy, Jet, and Droy. The moment I saw this, I was assaulted by a wave of emotions that neutralized and canceled out to no expression at all. Soon, the longer I started at the tree, the more my feeling of anger took over. Then Makarov came pushing through the crowd, and once he had a look at the tree, crushed his whole staff in pieces with his bare fist.

"Master Makarov," I spoke through ground teeth. "Do I have your permission to annihilate the entire guild of Phantom Lord who has done such a horrible deed as this?"

"You have my full permission, because a simple act of vandalism is nothing to worry about, but now that they've brought harm to my children, they'll pay for what they've done. This means WAR!" Makarov couldn't be more serious now. "Mages of Fairy Tail! We're paying Phantom Lord a visit! This is a war on Phantom!" At once, an uproar was caused by every mage of Fairy Tail, Natsu's cry resounding above the rest, breathing fire into the morning air.

In a blind rage, I stepped forward, Steel Morphing my arm into a scythe shape, then jumped at the tree and precisely slashed the chains off without bringing harm to the unfortunate captives. Rage once again became my entire being, and one by one, I angrily slashed at the metal restraints, carefully lowering each of the to the ground.

"Someone get them to a hospital, quick. They may die from blood loss if they're not treated right away." One by one, each of them were carried away to a hospital I knew not where. "I don't know where Phantom Lord is, but wherever those son of bitches are, I will find them. And I will kill them. Every single one of them. And I'll make sure..." I clenched my fist in a steel grip, "...that they never mess with Fairy Tail ever again. Natsu."

"What."

"You thinking what I'm thinking?"

"Yeah. I'm all fired up now, I'm gonna kick all their asses."

"Right. But I'm especially gonna kill whoever wrecked our guild and chained Levy, Jet, and Droy to the tree. I have a feeling it was the same guy."

"I heard he's a Dragon Slayer, though. You couldn't beat me, so how could you beat-" Instantly my fist met Natsu's face, shutting him up.

"Feel that? It hurt, didn't it? I assume he's a Metal type like me, and I don't care if he's a Dragon Slayer either. We're gonna team up against him. Actually, you know what? Fire Dragon Slayer Magic, Fire Arts and Steel Arts, and that dudes' Metal Dragon Slayer Magic, it's like a coincidence that was meant to happen, I just realized. But whatever. Now's no time to have a nice chat. We have a guild to kill."

"They really deserve it. They'll see that we won't stand for this! Let's destroy them all!" With a final cheer of the now enormous crowd consisting of every Fairy Tail member, "DESTROY THEM ALL!" the entire guild began a mad dash out of the town. It was time to annihilate, time to get our revenge.

xxxx

I followed alongside Natsu, Erza, and Gray, and most importantly Makarov in the very front as we led the crowd, as Fairy Tail's strongest team. Soon we reached the town of Oak, stopping in front of their guild doors. Assuming we didn't need permission to destroy their guild, Natsu and I used two fiery punches at the door, obliterating it entirely. Some Phantoms were on the other side, and were thrown back all the way to the other side of the gargantuan guild hall. I Destroyed my scarf so it wouldn't get ruined, and rolled up the sleeves of my jacket.

"It's time to hunt some monsters."

"EVERYBODY GO! IT'S EVERY MAN FOR HIMSELF!" cried Makarov mightily.

At once, I rushed forth into the crowd of people, morphing my arm into a large hammer shape just before I hit the first group of people. Then some mages hit me from the back, a mistake.

"Augh! He's solid, like Gajeel!"

"Look at his arm! He's a Steel type just like Gajeel!"

"SHUT IT, DICKS!" I yelled, whacking a large group of guys out of the way. _Gajeel?_ I thought. _Is that the one who destroyed our guild and pinned Levy and those other two to the tree? When I see him, he's gonna die!_ Using my Steel Morph creatively, I stretched out my arm to be a very long blade, cutting and impaling a bunch of guild members. Then quickly morphing it into a large bat, I swung around and round, knocking guild members all over the place like a big tornado. Remembering the great Lightning Spell I used the previous day, I flipped through my book to remember how to cast it.

"Lightning Magic: Disaster Volt!" A bunch of guild members jumped on me trying to pin me down, while some others aimed at me while I was held in place by the many grips, ready to send me into oblivion with their Magic attacks. But before they could do anything, I released all the electricity out in a great ball of sparks, electrocuting anyone within a large radius. Luckily, no one from my guild was around me. With their mitts off me, I jumped high into the air, using the wall to send me higher, until I reached the cross beams above on the ceiling, then finishing the attack.

"TAKE THIS! _HYYYAAAAAHHHH!_ " Many bolts of lightning surrounding one massive bolt erupted from my hands, absolutely shocking everyone. I crashed down to the ground with a mighty pound, creating a great shockwave in all directions and crushing the flooring with my fist. I rose out of the hole I made, unscathed, and looked all around at the destruction I had caused. Raw burnt to a crisp, unconscious, severely injured, or dead bodies lay everywhere, forming a great empty circle with me in the middle. Some guild members chickened out, while others rushed ahead with their attacks, someone using Rubber Magic, another with Shadow Magic, like Kageyama, then others with different kinds of Magic, some with various weapons or basically anything that they could use as self defense. All to take on me.

The first few guys I was able to dodge, then someone jabbed a sword in my direction, which I deflected with my metal arm, then slapped them out of the way, sending them flying. Another shoved a wooden mop in my face, which I lit on fire and hurled a Mega Flame Ball at the attacker. All the others I encased in Magma Core, and they all fell out, burnt and unconscious. Or dead.

Either way, I didn't care.

Some stronger looking dudes came my way, with much stronger Magic and weapons, thus proving more difficult. Though the duller weapons didn't hurt, the swords pierced my skin and muscles, throwing off my guard. The guys with Magic shot at my face, one with an energy burst type Magic, and one with a strengthening Magic. The one with the strength Magic pushed me back into the energy dude, who created a crack of energy that propelled me into the strength guy. Seeing as this would become a cycle, I was pushed back like a volleyball again by the muscle dude, I used the extra speed to forcefully Flame Punch the other guy in the face, then hooking a Flame Kick behind me, knocking out the muscle mage.

I took off my fedora to scratch my head, then I guess some other guy saw an opportunity to swing a sword down on my head, from what I infer, because I felt a tap on the head, and when I turned around, some guy was holding a now shattered sword that he broke over my head. Standing there absolutely stunned, I blew him away with Wind Blow and leaped after him, bringing Hammer Fist down onto his chest, causing his broken, sharp ribs to puncture his skin, making him cough up blood as well. I looked up with a murderous look, threatening anyone dared look my way with my death glare.

Some other idiot decided he wanted to throw away his life, dashing at me with two swords, which I broke in my hands, and Flame Kicked him in the stomach, which he tried catching my foot, in which he burnt his hands badly, then another Flame Kick to the stomach hurled him back through a window, to god knows where. Then a loud roar went up, and everyone who had been scared to fight me rushed at me, in hopes to strike me down woh whatever Magic they had. The first ones who reached me were Flame Punched to the opposite side of the hall, and the others stopped short, which then I used Fire Shield to blast them all away.

Once the flames of the shield died down, there was one more bystander who held his sword in both hands up to his face, shaking and quivering at the knees. I was wondering whether I should spare him or not, but just as I was about to decide, he weakly swung his sword at me, which I caught with my finger and thumb, then made a shape of an L on his forehead, then with as much strength as before, crushed the blade in two and walked away, but not before he rushed in the punch me.

"Oh boy. You're a brave one." Simply just pushing him, the force of my push sent him flying back, which he landed headfirst, his head skidding on the ground and busting open, then his body went completely limp and he lay on the ground, motionless.

"Sorry you couldn't save even yourself though," I whispered to the body. "Not like you can hear me."

Igniting myself in flames, I began marching towards the larger crowd of people on the other side of the hall. They had seen what I did, well, how could they not? They saw what I did to their guild members and dashed at me, preparing to use their spells. They were only putting their lives on the line, and they knew it. It would only be a matter of time before everyone in Fairy Tail took down the entirety of Phantom. In the beginning, we were outnumbered to Phantom Lord, but now with each one of us fighting for our lives, their numbers soon began to decrease. Making sure I was far enough away from the others, a large group of Phantoms rushed in and tried to attack, but only a sword merely scraped me right before I burst into a massive Flame Dome. Some of them had Magic shields that withstood my fire blast, but one by one I took care of them, even if a bit slow to the task, as I was constantly beat around like a punching bag, even socked in the gut at one point, but all that did was make me barf fire and vomit all over them, drenching them and immediately flames began spewing out of my mouth, a new attack created by accident: Flame Breath. It was a strange way to be introduced to a new move, but I didn't give it a second thought as I began expelling flames out of my open mouth, setting everyone within my radius on fire. Nevertheless, the large group of people that were ganging up on me were a bit too much, almost knocking me unconscious, but then like a blessing (and also kind of a curse) my hallucinations began to kick in, as I saw the members of Phantom Lord turn absolutely savage and murder every single one of our guild members slowly, painfully. In the moment, this was enough to fuel me and made me angry enough to blow off the group of Phantoms, but after defeating the mob, I went on to fight another mob of Phantoms wondering why I just had another hallucination just now.

 _Why…?_ I thought. _I definitely got enough sleep. Is it the exercises I did last night? No, it couldn't have been… I definitely did not go overboard with the exercising, but just enough to make me strain and work my muscles…_

 _So what could it be…?_

Caught off guard, someone from behind hit me over the head with a wooden chair, making me stagger a bit and knocking me into my senses. Snapping out of my thoughts entirely and focusing on the fight, I realized I had rushed over to the bar area, which I backflipped into and began punching guys left and right as if I were in a bar fight scene in a movie. Then remembering that alcohol was flammable, I grabbed a drink from the shelves behind me, popped it open and began drinking it. The Phantoms looked confused and tried to attack me, but I held up my finger in protest and began chugging down the bottle. I had to stop after I had chugged less than a quarter of the bottle, because this was some strong stuff. It was extremely bitter tasting. It was like nothing I'd ever had before, but that's because I had only ever had alcohol once before, and that was two days prior. The liquid was very strong, and burned the back of my throat, making me cough a bunch. The group of guys on the opposite side of the counter made jerky movements, looking for an opening to attack, but I managed to mumble, "Stop" causing a trickle of alcohol to drip down my chin and leak onto the floor until I managed to swallow it. I made a disgusted face and looked at the bottle closer which said "Whiskey, 60% Vol."

"Oogh… that's some strong ass shit." I leaned casually on the counter as if nothing was going on. I heard the biggest booze drinker of our guild, Cana Alberona shout, "Weak!" and some people laughed. It was then I noticed that a lot of people stopped fighting and were staring at me as if I had gone crazy. I motioned for the guys who were trying to attack me to sit down, which they reluctantly and oddly complied, then I took out another bottle of whiskey and some shot glasses and poured them a drink. Act of courtesy.

Y'know, breaking the ice instead of bones- ah, forget it. What started as an idea to make my fire breath stronger turned into me having a drink with my enemies. I don't even know what's going on in my head sometimes, but all I know is that I can think some pretty crazy stuff. After each of them had a sip, I emptied half the bottle, beginning to feel a bit tipsy. Things seemed funny again, not just weird funny, but humor funny as well. I still had enough consciousness to stand and know what was going on, so I took the rest of the bottle and smashed it over the first guy's head, knocking him unconscious. I didn't want to kill him, as he hadn't harmed me in any way or gotten too close. I had been counting the number of casualties brought by my own hands, 31 being the most. I didn't feel so good, and it wasn't just the thought of me killing those guild members, either. I felt a fire in my belly (kinda sounded like Natsu there) and the alcohol fueled the flame as I predicted, sending a massive stream of flames out of my mouth. I had already thrown up prior, so I knew my stomach was empty and I could fill it with strong liquor to fuel my attack. I didn't like how it made me feel, so I would refrain from using it in the future, only as a last resort. Why as a last resort? Because I was straight spittin' fire for almost two whole minutes, burping up powerful flames and torching everyone that tried to knock me down. If I closed my mouth for long enough, then I could create a massive fireball that bursted from my mouth at speed and flung away anyone who dared try to attack me. Afterward, the drunk feeling went ceased a bit.

"Ugh, not trying that again… Everything smells like alcohol. Well, what else would I expect…" Then everything ground to a halt, because there was a loud crash from above.

"It's him…!"

"That's him!"

"Who's that...?" I walked over to Erza unsteadily, worried that I may get slightly drunk again out of nowhere.

"It's the Steel Dragon Slayer... 'Black Steel' Gajeel!"

 _So this is that Gajeel guy, huh?_ I thought. _Wait'll he gets a taste of my fist...!_

No pun intended.

Someone from our guild leaped towards Gajeel. "You'll pay for what you did to Levy!" Unfortunately, he was knocked away by the arm of Gajeel which turned into a familiar looking, steel pillar.

"Attention everyone! I, Black Steel Gajeel, will be taking on all of you!" he shouted.

"MAN! I may be trash, but I'm still a MAN!" Elfman had previously turned his arm into a beast's arm, now turning it into a hard brick arm in an attempt to hit Gajeel in the face, but Gajeel blocked with a metal arm.

"You're Elfman?" Gajeel quickly did a flurry of attacks, but Elfman was able to dodge and blocked an iron kick with his concrete hand.

"Hm. Not bad at all."

"A man is to be strong," said Elfman.

"Really? Then how about this?" At that moment, Gajeel created many smaller pillars from his leg, flying out in all directions and hitting other members of his own guild.

"How can you?! They're members of your own guild! You're not a man!"

'Shut up! What're you looking at!" Gajeel punched Elfman in the face with a steel fist, knocking him back. Natsu saw this as an opportunity to get a hit on Gajeel and used Elfman as a launchpad to leap forward and hit him in the face with an Iron Fist of the Fire Dragon.

"GAJEEL!" he screamed, punching Gajeel. He was thrown back, crushing the bar behind him.

"Woah! Gajeel got hit!"

"That's the first time I've seen that happen!"

"Shut up!" With the slash of a Flame Claw, I knocked out a bunch of bystanders from Phantom.

"I'm the Fire Dragon Slayer of Fairy Tail. You'll pay for what you did to Levy!" yelled Natsu.

"Take this! Steel Pillar!" Gajeel sent a large metal pillar from his arm towards Natsu, but Natsu held on to the pillar.

"You ruined our guild, and brought harm to Levy and the others… HRRGH!" With much strength, he held Gajeel up in the air by his arm. "He's heavy! Vincent! Get 'im!"

"I gotcha!" With a mighty Flame Kick, I sent Gajeel into the air, hitting a beam and using it to propel himself back down, which then Natsu punched him in the face again, back into a wall.

"Natsu! You not only used me as a stepping stone, but you interfered in our man-to-man fight as well?"

"Yeah, what of it? I have to get him back for what he did to Levy, Jet, and Droy! I can't not do anything!"

"Alright, fine! I'll leave this man-to-man fight to you! But in return-"

"Yeah, yeah, I got it! I'll be sure to beat the crap outta this guy. Vinny, you with me?"

"Aye sir," I did an imitation of Happy.

"Hey! He copied me!" Happy pointed out.

Suddenly from the pile of rubble created when he landed, Gajeel rose up, unscathed, save from a white scratch on his face.

"That didn't hurt at all," he huffed.

"Really? It doesn't look like it to me," challenged Natsu.

"Is that so?" Gajeel began to dash at us, but I got out of the way in time as he kicked Natsu away.

"You asshole!" I punched at Gajeel with a Titanium Fist, which he got knocked down by.

"Natsu! Get up!" Natsu did so, seemingly unscathed as well.

"You… fedora kid. You use both of our types, don't you? I can tell by your arm. Whatever! I'll just crush you so that there's only one of each of us, you copycat!" Gajeel jumped up in the air and brought his foot down, which I caught with my violently quivering hand.

"What… did you just call me?" My voice grew deep and menacing. Gajeel smirked.

"You're fedora kid. You're just a kid." Immediately after he said that, my right fist ignited with flames and punched Gajeel down to the ground.

"You… called me… a kid…" I held up Gajeel by his shirt, punching him again which sent him flying back. "Don't EVER, and I mean NEVER, call me a kid _**AGAIN!**_ " Leaping into the air, I brought my foot down onto Gajeel.

"Crushing Stomp!" Using a new idea for a move, I brought my hard foot down straight, but not fast enough as he caught my leg and threw me to the ground, knocking the wind out of me.

"I'll call you what I want before I beat you down like a floorboard peg. Bet you didn't think they taste any good, just like how I'll eat your arm!" Gajeel exposed razor sharp teeth, took my arm, and bit down like a bloodthirsty vampire. I expected a huge chunk to be missing from my arm, but all I head was a soft clank.

"Um… do you have any idea how wrong this looks right now…?" Gajeel, with his mouth around my forearm stopped and realized that, it did look wrong. Very wrong.

"Please don't." I fired up my right fist and punched Gajeel away, with Natsu standing behind him.

"Natsu!"

"Already a step ahead!" Natsu clasped his fiery fists together and brought them down on Gajeel, throwing him to the ground.

"Natsu eats fire to power up… so you eat metal to gain energy as well? Interesting… well I'ma tell you buddy, this arm is not to be consumed, and to be kept out of reach from ages 5 and under due to choking hazard." Gajeel lifted up his head and ground his teeth. "Who's a kid now? You'll pay for it if you decide to call me that again…" I shot a menacing glare at Gajeel again, who smirked.

"What're you gonna do about it? Huh? What's-" I had a feeling that he was going to call me a kid one more time, but he was interrupted by yet another loud crash.

"Jeez! How many crashes can top each other?!" I muttered. But everything stopped once everyone saw what had made the sound.

"Gramps!"

"Makarov!"

"Master!"

In a crater on the ground lay the figure Master Makarov, green, defeated, and old.

"T-they got me...!" he groaned.

"UHHHHH...!" A loud weep could be heard from the beams above. An unforeseen mage in a green coat and hat, with a cloth covering his eyes had tears streaming down his face. "So sad...! Uhhhuhuhuh...!"

"Hey! Did you do this to Makarov?! Reveal yourself!" I yelled at the mage. To this, a stream of tears followed by loud weeping resounded throughout the hall.

"I am Aria of the Elemental Four of Phantom Lord...! Uhh! So sad to see this happen to your precious master...!"

"I can't tell if he's serious or not. What the hell is the Element Four...? And why does he keep crying?"

"I dunno who this guy is, I just wanna kick his ass," replied Natsu who was standing next to me. Suddenly, I wobbled a bit, dizzy in the place I stood due to the alcohol.

Erza, who was also standing close by, replied as well. "The Element Four... they're Phantom's strongest mages aside from Gajeel himself. And him..." Yet another mage came onto the scene, none other than the master of Phantom himself, Master Jose.

"Ah. How pitiful. Yes. This is Aria of the Element Four. He has the power to cancel out other's magic. Your precious master, is useless. He won't be able to save you now," said Master Jose.

"Yeah?! _You sure of that?!_ " I yelled as I jumped up towards Aria with a Flame Punch, but he used his nullifying Magic on me, shocking me and halting my attack slightly, yet my punch still connected with his face and sent him flying back, crashing into and breaking tons of crossing ceiling beams. With a shocked look on his face, he managed to stand, Gajeel jumping to join him.

"What is this mage...? It's so sad how powerful he is...! My Magic didn't work! It's so sad!" cried Aria.

"I don't know what he's made of, but it doesn't matter, because we've now captured Lucy Heartfilia."

"W-what did you say...?!" I wasn't expecting blackmail.

Natsu didn't, either. "GAJEEL!"

"Salamander. May we meet another day. And you, Mr. Fedora. I don't know what you're made of, but you're still a kid to me. Farewell."

This was enough to make me snap.

Instantly Mega Evolving, I crushed the beam underneath my feet by using it to boost myself forward towards Gajeel and Aria as I saw them begin to disappear.

" _OH NO YOU DON'T! GET BACK HERE! **I'LL MAKE YOU EAT THOSE WORDS GAJEEEEEEL!**_ " I tackled Gajeel just in time, just as we vanished.


	43. Chapter 43: The Attack

The next thing I knew, I was in a room with both Aria and Gajeel. The first thing I notice before Gajeel knocked me away was that wherever I was, wasn't the guild of Phantom. This, I could infer by the different walls and number of windows.

"Gajeel! Where are we?!" I yelled.

"Idiot! You followed us to our headquarters! A kid like you shouldn't be here." Immediately after Gajeel was done talking, I rushed forward at high speed, cloaking myself in flames. The force of the impact made Gajeel flip backwards in the air, smashing into the floor.

"B-but I thought I had canceled your Fire Magic…! I'm so sad…! URG-" With a Flame Punch to the gut, Aria was propelled up high, where I met him in midair and brought him back down with Hammer Fist. Stunned and paralyzed from the blow, he could do nothing but lie there.

"Buddy, lemme tell you, this ain't Magic you're dealing with. You may have stolen away my Magic, but there's more to me than meets the eye, fuckface." I turned to Gajeel, who rose out of the ground. "And now you. I'll kill you."

"What's wrong with being honest? You little kid," Gajeel taunted again, which backfired instantly, as it fueled my anger to Flame Punch him even harder to the ground. "You weakling… that didn't even hurt a bit!"

"Want me to barbecue your head, then?" I ground my teeth hard and Flame Kicked him in the gut, but he caught my foot and tried kicking with his foot, but I caught that too, then he tried using Steel Pillar to my face, which I caught, and we realized that we were both using three of our four limbs and if one of us tried using one of them, the other would have a chance to attack. I was in checkmate.

Just kidding.

Of course, I had just learned how to use Flame Breath, so I took a deep breath and my mouth became a flamethrower. While Gajeel was trying to put out to fire in his hair, I saw an opportunity to attack, but Gajeel knew this, and sent a Steel Pillar into my stomach, following this up by transforming his arm into a spiked sword.

"Iron Dragon's Sword!" This had to be countered with me morphing my arm, from the elbow onward, into a metal scythe, causing the blades to clash together creating a shower of sparks. His pushing power was greater than mine, but I still glared at him and pushed back, my stamina quickly draining as he pushed me further down. All this strength he had, even while I was Mega Evolved.

 _Guess I have to use this… I have to, no matter what the consequence…! I thought to myself. I don't care how taxing this'll be on my body… he'll pay for calling me a kid…! In front of so many people, embarrassing me like he thinks he's some kind of comedian…_

It was time to bust out my Giga Evolution again.

"HrrrRRRAAAGH!" My body shone and grew larger than before, and I could feel my energy level increase, resonating throughout every part of my being. Gajeel was lost for words once he saw my evolution, with many large spikes protruding my body, my long hair running down my back (again, this was an early character design before I knew about DBZ, so don't yell at me), my flaming arm and my sharpened teeth, not to mention increased size. Immediately, the pressure began to build steadily, causing me to instantly break out in sweat.

"This is your end, Gajeel! You'll pay for what you did to the hall! Everyone who was hurt… Levy, Jet, Droy… everyone in the guild right now, some being terribly injured…most of this… _IS YOUR FAULT!_ " Rushing forward with an attack plan in mind, I was caught off guard by his overgrown metal arm.

"Take this, you pest! Steel Dragon Club!" It was like the Steel Pillar he previously used, but smaller, quicker, and more powerful, and hurt quite a bit even while I was in my Giga Evolution.

"You asshole… I'll kill you for what you did…!" My fingers curved in the shape of a monster claw, igniting in flames. _I'm about to use Flame Claw, but I'm curving my fingers? It's like an actual claw now, but the question is would it work … maybe I should call the other one Flat and this one, now what should I call it…?_ Gajeel jumped towards me with a hollow cackle, his voice like some kind of possessed hawk.

 _Oh, I got it._

"Flame Claw: Talon Style!" Instead of just one slice going diagonally, four slashes shot out from my hands, then another, more powerful four when I shaped my metal fingers into actual claws and cloaked them in flames, making a shape of four intercrossing X's on the wall that Gajeel smashed back into.

 _By not keeping my hand straight as if my arm were a blade, but rather curving my fingers like the talons of a bird, I'm able to cause more damage! This may work with some of my other attacks as well, to add more variety to my attacks._

I had to try again, I could not resist the curiosity. Gajeel rose up, slightly bruised. Instantly I jumped at him, igniting my foot.

"Flame Kick: Crush!" Sort of like Crushing Stomp, I brought my foot down onto Gajeel, who got out of the way in time and shot his club arm at me.

 _I can do it with my physical moves_ , I thought, _but I don't know whether I can change up my special attacks._ _I can only try._

The results were mildly unsatisfying. My Flame Ball could only charge up to Monster level, Flare Burst could only be boosted to Flare Laser, Magma Core remained the same, Fire Wheel was no different, and so on. Though it was disappointing, I had to defeat Gajeel either way. Each attack was more powerful with the energy boost of my Giga Evolution, but I had no way to alter my special attacks or do what I wanted. Even more curious, I tried exerting a blast of fire out of both the bottoms of my feet, but that only resulted in my feet becoming covered in flame and me face planting into the floor, making me open to Gajeel, who grabbed me by the leg and swung me round, bashing me into pillars and finally sending me flying into a wall near a large entrance to another room. Bruised and cut, bleeding slightly, I began to rise up, but Gajeel wouldn't allow me to, punching me repeatedly to the ground, then grabbing my metal arm and tossing me across the room once again. This time, I predicted Gajeel's next move and blocked his incoming foot of steel with my hand.

"I won't let you… I won't let you get away with _anything!_ " I panted, igniting my fist and swinging it up into Gajeel's chest, knocking him down. This, however, didn't seem to affect him much, as he quickly rose up again, adopting a nasty grin and cackle, and continued his beating on me. With his punches being hard as mine, it was starting to hurt a lot, making me begin to lose consciousness. My face was bruised, blood was dripping out of my mouth and open lip, and there were many various cuts around my face, all of which I didn't need to see to know it was there.

"Prepare to die, little fairy! Muahahaha! Prepare to die, just like your stupid ol' father! Hahahaha!"

 _...what did he just say…?_

A sudden reflex shot through my arm, blocking Gajeel's incoming punch.

"What… did you… **just… _SAY…?!_** " I roared. All the pressure was temporarily forgotten as my entire being began to heat up hotter and hotter, my eyes growing dark, eyebrows furled, teeth curled into a murderous, volatile snarl, ground hard as if they were welded together, fists crackling into a steel vice grip, bursting into an atomic flame, separated from the wall of fire that surrounded my entire body.

"What… do you know… _**ABOUT MY FATHER'S DEATH?!**_ " My figure began to pulsate, growing larger, reverting back to Giga, and back again, repeating this cycle as I marched closer to Gajeel, who was sprawled out on the ground. He rushed in to try to attack me, but my Fire Shield kept him away. My body began to grow a bit larger than before, pulsating between Giga Evolution and possibly my next Evolution.

"Ha! What good will it do, knowing what happened to your father?" A mistake on his part, gravely. No pun intended. I held him up by his neck and my eyes lowered, then my whole head combusted spontaneously. The heat of the fire was growing to hot for my jacket, and it unfortunately burned away, along with my shirt. The fire luckily went out, leaving my pants on fire.

"Augh! Ack! Shit! My pants!" I let go of Gajeel, dancing around like a dumbass as I frantically tried to put out the fire on my pants. I wasn't ever taught to stop, drop, and roll, so I resorted to the next best thing: dousing my pants with my Water Magic. Which didn't work because Aria had taken away my Magic Energy. I eventually just stripped off my pants and began whacking it around, looking like a lunatic as I sat there crouched in my gray boxer briefs waving around a flaming pair of jeans.

Once I was done making a fool out of myself, I slid my pants back on and turned to face Gajeel, who had been standing there the whole time with a blank look on his face.

"Uhm, where were we again…? said Gajeel.

"Shut it! You're gonna tell me if you had any affiliation with my father's death. And if you did…" I shot another death glare at Gajeel. "... I swear by the name of the True Charizard, I'll obliterate you entirely, burn you to ashes and destroy every last molecule of you, one by one, slowly... _painfully_... _**RELENTLESSLY...!**_ "

In the final moments before it happened, I was able to get many strong hits in, and beat Gajeel around like a punching bag, as he had done to me previously, although to little avail, because he either came out unscathed, defended, or just dodged entirely.

Then it happened.

At first, I thought it was my imagination or a mere earthquake, but when I fell over due to my unsteadiness, I glanced out the window to find that the headquarters had begun to move like a giant iron monster, prowling upon the badlands where it once stood, still and silent like a grand, intimidating sentinel. The ground was unstable, and neither one of us could stand without falling over for a short time.

"Gajeel! What's going on here?!" I yelled over the crash of each leg hitting the ground.

"It's begun… finally!"

"What's begun? What's going on?! Tell me!" With much caution, I darted to Gajeel, holding him up by his jacket.

"You're annoying…! Get off! Leggo me! Rrgh!" His hands grabbed mine, but I had a grip of steel, literally. With my other flaming fist, I lifted it up threateningly to his face.

"Answer my questions! I'll kill you if you don't!" Gajeel decided against using his usual smirk, but rather loosened the tension on his neck a bit and sighed.

"You're annoying. I don't care about not calling you a kid because you're being one. I could care less about what you are or your age, I really don't care about you at all. But since you're gonna keep bugging me about it, I'll tell you. But I think you may be too sensitive to hear the truth." My arm shot forward angrily.

"I don't care about what you think. Just tell me already! Otherwise I'll break your teeth!"

"Tch. Like you could anyway. Fine, you wanna know?" To be honest, over the anger, I was actually worried about what he was about to say. And I had no reason not to be. "This headquarters holds a secret weapon that'll destroy your pathetic guild if you refuse to give up Ms. Lucy Heartfilia."

"Okay. And why do you pervs want her so badly?"

"It's not my decision, nor is it Master Jose's."

"What...?" I didn't believe that. Why wouldn't it be Jose's doing? He's the Master of Phantom, so who could be above him besides the Council? I knew the Council couldn't be that cold hearted, so I didn't know who else could've done this. "What are you talking about?"

"Exactly as I said. And if you wanna save your guild, all you have to do is surrender Miss Lucy to us. Otherwise we'll use our Magic Cannon to blast your guild to pieces."

"No... not another one..." My rage began to grow once again. "How do I stop it?!"

"Hmph. You can't. Once decided, the cannon will fire and nothing can stop it."

"No...! There has to be a way! There must be! Why are you guys targeting us? Besides the fact that you want Lucy from us, which by the way, I don't know if you know, but newsflash: we're not gonna give her up. Ever. And you guys can take your little two-inch "cannon" and shove it, because you're not blowing up our guild either. How'd you like it if I trashed Phantom and killed your members? Well, technically, I kinda did, but-argh-that's besides the point! What if everyone in Fairy Tail went to trash your guild and destroy it with a giant cannon?"

"Then we'd get our revenge on you guys, and we'd crush you all, since we're stronger than all of you. But anyway," Gajeel smirked again. "You guys didn't trash our guild. We trashed yours. And we got permission from the Council to do so."

"What? That's incredulous. Absolutely inane! I don't believe you for one second. You couldn't have…" While I was contemplating, Gajeel gained his strength back and threw me over his head onto the ground, making me let go of his jacket. With a Steel Dragon Club, he caught me as I stood up, throwing me backwards and scraping me across the floor like some kind of bug. I lay in the floor as he retracted his arm and jumped forward to crush me again, but I was able to stop him just in time with a Giga Flame Ball, sending him into the air. Pushing off the ground with great force, I flew up to his position in the air and beat him around until he gained some strength back and fought back, morphing his arm into the bladed sword, making me block with my metal arm and creating fireworks that sprayed out from the collision of our arms. My arm cancelled out his attack, forcing us backwards as we spiraled down to the ground, only to dash towards each other with our mightiest attacks.

"Steel Dragon…"

"Monster…"

As we came the closest to each other, I jumped up and leapfrogged over his head, attacking from behind.

"... Flame Ball…!"

"Lance!" Swinging his arm around, he was able to turn just in time and forced his huge arm blade into my Flame Ball. The flame held up and prevented him arm from going through entirely, but I soon felt the edge penetrate the ball just a little. I couldn't allow him to get the better of me, so I pushed harder.

"You didn't answer my other question either! What do you know about my father?!" I yelled over the roar of the crackling conflagration.

"What do you care? I don't want you to burst out in tears like a little baby from the answer!"

Now I'm a baby. That's unacceptable.

"THAT'S **_IT!_** " Pushing harder than before, I added more fire to the Flame Ball, giving it just enough power to cancel out Gajeel's mighty attack.

There was a great flash of orange as white hot fingers expanded out in a massive burst. The sheer force Gajeel's arm breaking the Flame Ball was enough to blow me away, combined with the explosion that followed hurled me into the wall, as I became a battering ram that caused a huge chunk of the wall to crumble after I had broken through and started plummeting into some water below. As I fell, I reverted back into my normal form, my Giga Evolution wearing off.

Some Magic Energy returned to me, enough to Summon Gyarados. A sudden deja vu washed over me as I summoned Gyarados to carry me to the surface of the water before I ran out of breath. On the surface, I was met by a shower of debris from the wall that I busted moments earlier. I felt almost offended by this action, having felt like a projectile, but then decided that I was being too sensitive ever since Gajeel had mentioned my dad, but in fairness, I suspected that he had something to do with his death. I wasn't about to let that slide. The closer I could get to finding out the full story of what happened to my father, the more I could prepare to take on Elementia. These thoughts flowed through my brain as I caught my breath, holding on to Gyarados' sleek scales with as much grip as I could manage, pulling myself up over until I hung like a towel, both ends drooping into the water.

"Gyarados... we gotta go catch up with the headquarters," I commanded Gyarados, who sped away in a mad dash like a jet ski after the mobile headquarters building. But then, a sight on the horizon stopped my heart, making my blood run cold.

We had arrived at Fairy Tail.

"No... no...! I'm too late!" I groaned.

In the distance, I could see the cannon unfold, pointed towards a large crowd; everyone in Fairy Tail. Gyarados knew this was urgent, and sped along faster than before. Soon, we arrived close to the shore, and in one slick, fluid motion, I used the momentum of Gyarados' speed to launch me onto land, then returning him back to his Pokéball as I rolled and landed in a little caved in area that the crowd made.

It was then I realized that I had only pants and shoes on.

Frantically, I Summoned a shirt and slid it on. It was a little smaller and made my muscles show more than I wanted them to, making me feel a little embarrassed. But my embarrassment was soon wiped out by the issue at hand. In front of me was the cannon, storing up a dark pulse of energy, distorting the space around it and causing the air to ripple.

"Vinny! Stand back!" yelled Erza from the crowd. As she said this, she stepped forward and Requipped into a heavy suit of armor, then she held out a Magic shield in front of her, causing a Magic Circle to appear.

"Erza! Don't do it! You'll die!" shouted Gray.

"Gray! You need to have faith in Erza! She's strong enough to withstand this!" I called. "Erza! You can do it!" Although I had faith in her, I couldn't help but be worried still.

"Natsu! Let's help Erza stop the cannon!" I called to Natsu.

"Alright!" However, Natsu was stopped by Erza.

"No! Don't! If I die, I'll take one for the team. I'm doing his for you all. I don't want any of you getting hurt. Please." Her voice was sincere, and I could feel it. "Please. Just like you said. Have faith in me. I know you want to help me, but..." She smiled sadly. "I can't let anything happen to you all."

"... okay. But if anything happens to you, if you die from this, I'll never forgive them. I swear it. And I already have a list of people I can never forgive, and that'll just add to it," I joked.

" _Fairy Tail. This cannon will fire if you choose not to give up Miss Lucy Heartfilia. If you fail to decide, then we will fire the Magic Cannon,_ Jupiter."

All at once, there was a great uproar from the crowd as they angrily jeered at the headquarters building. The response was absolutely earsplitting. Over and over everyone screamed " _NO!_ ", defending the wonderful girl from our guild, Lucy Heartfilia. I almost couldn't believe it. Lucy was just as new as I was, and we had only been a part of the guild for about a year, but everyone was treating her like they had known her for years and years. I don't know exactly how they would act if I was in that position, but I assumed very similarly to this moment, because each and every one of them were nice people inside. No matter what their flaws may be. Even if I hadn't gotten to know any of them fully, I knew that they were all nice people.

This uproar inspired me, and soon I was roaring with the crowd, cursing Phantom out with the best insults I could think of, yelling angrily at the top of my lungs. I couldn't bear the thought of Phantom having any affiliation with my father and his end. But I wasn't just about to stand by idly and let them get away with it, on top of everything they did to our guild.

The ripple in the air grew larger and larger, and the growing ball of energy from the mouth of the cannon seemed to distort all space around it. All yelling ceased as the deafening burst of the cannon shot straight at the entire crowd. Erza prepared the shield and began to wrestle with the rushing beam of darkness. A massive crackling sound resonated through the air, so much that one could not even hear themselves think. Erza dared not to give away, although I could imagine the amount of strain was being put on her. Adopting a fierce glare, she gave her all as the shield began to fracture, slowly deteriorating under the pressure. I didn't think it would actually happen, but just as the beam was about to stop, her armor broke, and just the slightest blow from the beam forced her backwards as she did a somersault in the air, Requipping in midair.

At least, that's what I _would've_ seen.

What I witnessed was the energy beam forcing its was through Ezra's shield, relentlessly pushing onward, disintegrating Erza entirely right before my eyes, _then_ stopping.

"Erza...!" cried Gray.

"Ezra's..." I started.

"No, she's not dead. She's halfway there, though. She needs medical attention immediately!" shouted Elfman.

 _It's just a hallucination. It's just a hallucination,_ I reminded myself. But despite the fact that I was able to snap back to reality, and see that Erza was indeed still intact and alive, she was just barely. And I couldn't let that go. I didn't care what their intent was, I didn't care if they meant to harm her or not, the action was still done. Such as Phantom trashing our guild and harming our members. It was unforgivable. I'm sure anyone in my place would feel the same way, and do what I was about to do.

Over the loudspeaker, Jose said something about Jupiter taking time to recharge, but I didn't really listen to what he was saying, the only thing I could make out was " _15 minutes to recharge_ " and then many dark figures came out of the building and spread out, creating an abstract screen of blackness.

Erza was carried away to be taken care of, but meanwhile we had these shadowy apparitions to take care of. A bit of energy returned to me, and I sent out Fearow to fly me up to the mouth of the cannon. I figured if I could stop the cannon from the inside within the 15 minutes, I may be able to save the guild.

I was gonna get some answers, even if it meant bloodshed. There would be hell to pay.


	44. Chapter 44: The Cannon

You know that surreal lightheaded feeling, the feeling where you know that you're definitely present in space and time, but you feel like you're in a dream and everything seems unreal? It's rare to get one of those, and when you do get one, you feel kind of good in a way, but a bit unsettled nonetheless.

This applied to me, except a lot more often, with all the hallucinations of everyone I know dying in the most terrible ways, haunting me endlessly, slowly, to the point of insanity. This was exactly the feeling that hit me like a brick wall as I flew on Fearow into the cannon Jupiter's barrel. The perpetual spiraling rhombus pattern engraved into the walls of the massive barrel caused my head to have its own case of spiraling, hitting me with major deja vu. It wasn't necessarily pleasing to the eyes or mind this time around; in fact, it seemed to have the opposite effect. I felt like I was being transported into a dream world, a place where nothing has to or does make sense.

After what seemed like forever inside the barrel of the cannon, we reached the core of the machine, a huge room with a giant lacrima that posed as the centerpiece of it all. Returning Fearow and landing on the ground in one fluid motion, my eyes instantly became fixated on this giant ball, as if it were trying to lull me into a hypnotic trance. Energy pulsated from withing the heart of the great crystal sphere, building up slowly as a loud voice announced, "Thirteen minutes until Jupiter fires."

"Damn… I have to destroy thing thing now!" I immediately began charging up Flame Ball, then Mega Evolving to reach Giga Flame Ball. But just as I was about to hurl it, the flames spread out and dissipated completely.

"What the hell…? Are my Fire Arts acting up in a time like this? Wait… why would they be acting up at all?" I thought out loud. "... that's strange…" I tried charging up another Flame Ball, but was once again proven futile. Within the next whole minute, I had used almost my entire array of fire attacks, all proving to be useless.

"Argh…! Come on! Work… already…!" I used the attack I hadn't used yet, Flame Breath. Hot fire erupted from my mouth as usual, firing in a straight line towards the lacrima at speed.

"Yes! It worked! The lacrima will break!" I shouted in victory.

Then things took a turn for the worse. All the fire I blew out of my mouth seemed to have a mind of its own; as soon as it looked like the flames would at least fracture the lacrima, it boomeranged around, taking its own path around, then growing in size and darting back in my direction. I held up my arms to block the incoming attack from burning my shirt and stood there, absolutely confudled while the resounding voice announced eleven minutes remaining.

All of a sudden, a blast of fire wooshed through me, taking me by surprise at the very least. But what was even more surprising besides the fact that a mage in traditional attire, wielding a katana with his hair tied up appeared out of nowhere was that my clothes didn't catch fire.

"Look dude, if you're gonna keep trying to set me aflame, don't use spells that can burn my clothes. That being the very least."

"... that wasn't necessarily the response I was expecting," he said quietly.

"Hmph. Whatever. I'm gotta destroy that lacrima, so you can just get outta the way, okay?"

"Sorry. I'm afraid I can't let you do that. You seem like a worthy opponent to take on, but I have the advantage over you."

"What...?" I muttered.

"I'm Totomaru of the Element Four. As you may or may not have guessed, I can control the element of fire. Any attacks or anything to do with fire is under my control. And I cannot stand idly by to let you destroy this lacrima. I will not allow it."

"Yeah well, you may or may not have guessed," I mocked, "That I don't use just fire attacks. You should do your research before you fight someone."

"A Multi Caster...? I would've thought them all to be arrested or executed by now..." murmured Totomaru as the loud voice announced ten minutes left before the cannon fired.

"I don't care what you call me, but I'm here to destroy this thing, not to have a nice little chat with you." At this, I pointed at him and lowered the hat on my head. "And if you try to stop me, then I'll destroy _you_ instead.

He smirked slightly and then lowered his head and gripped the katana at his side with a menacing look. "So I assume you'll use some other weak spell because you used all those attacks before, and thus, you're out of Magic Energy, I presume. That puts me at an advantage, because I have my fire magic and my katana that I'll use to cut you to pieces! Yaaahh!" He unleased a furious warlike cry as he leaped into the air with his sword above his head and brought it down upon me. But as the katana swung down towards my head, he was shocked by my quick reflexes as I stopped it with my thumb and index finger. If my left arm was made of normal bone and skin, then the katana would've surely sliced my entire thumb off. Luckily, considering the blessing/curse that was my solid metal arm, I was able to pull off this otherwise impossible feat. And also including the feat that followed, when I snapped the katana in half with only two fingers. This surprised even me, because katanas are made traditionally from folding steel over itself hundreds upon hundreds of times, making them quite hard swords. And that's not including the hardness of the steel itself. When crushing the sword, it felt pretty solid, but wasn't extremely difficult to snap in half. This came as a surprise, indicating that I was much stronger than I thought myself to be, considering I hadn't even used my full strength in breaking the sword.

"Though your sword is broken, you might assume you can beat me with your fists. Go ahead and try. I dare you."

Totomaru jumped back and sheathed his broken sword. "I'd rather not, after seeing what you seem to be made of. You're just like Gajeel, in that you're made of steel. I felt the shock of the sword hitting your hand, and it felt like I was hitting another sword."

"Well done, Holmes. You cracked the case. Do you give up now?"

"No… not yet! In case you've forgotten, I have Fire Magic that I use as well." As he said this, a Magic Circle appeared and he used a Fire Spell.

"Blue Fire!" Hence the name, a stream of blue flame shot out from the Magic Circle and flew through me. I could tell that it wasn't normal fire, aside from the color. I was expecting it to be much hotter than normal fire, as blue fire is supposed to be, but this fire was icy cold and chilled me right down to the bone. The voice then announced eight minutes left. I had to destroy this lacrima, no matter what. Ignoring the fight for the time being, I jumped towards the lacrima and prepared to use a non-fire attack.

"Titanium…"

"I won't let you! Green Fire!" Like a whip, the stream of fire grabbed my ankle just as I was about to destroy the lacrima with a powerful punch. Using it as so, Totomaru slammed me down to the ground, and further still, used it like a lasso and swung it above his head, making me crash into the walls and back onto the floor, but he was careful enough to stop me from crashing into the lacrima.

How thoughtful.

Once I was able to get up, I quickly detatched the green flame from my ankle, but found it to be stuck to my hands like some goo. Totomaru saw this as an oportunity to swing me around again, to bring more harm to me. Other than the fact that smashing me into the walls only scratched me a bit and cause me to bleed, I was starting to get dizzy and for a moment felt sorry for Natsu, knowing that he wouldn't be able to handle the spinning if he was in my position. As he slammed me down to the ground, I heard the distant voice announce seven minutes left.

"Rrgh… get off!" Flaming up my hands, I blasted the sticky green flame away, but Totomaru used this to slam my hands down to the ground. Instantly, I made my flames dissipate and rose up quickly, but he had another attack set for me.

"Orange Fire!" He blasted me with a wave of orange colored flames next. It didn't hurt, but I noticed a horrid smell and soon realized that it was the flames that smelled. This threw off my focus and my hand rushed up to cover my nose, but then he used another attack.

"Red Fire!" With an identical blast of flame, but this time red and far less foul smelling, I stood there, unaffected, unless you count my shirt briefly catching fire, where I had to Destroy it because I didn't want to have to keep going out and buying new shirts due to them ruined.

"Are you done with your persistent stream of fire attacks that, if you haven't taken a hint yet, don't have any affect on me?"

"So I noticed. And while I understand that, I was getting ready for an attack that will blow even you away... Rainbow Fire!" With a fire of many colors in his hands, he hurled it towards me, creating a large explosion around me. The only thing that was close to hurt was a large piece of debris that struck me on the forehead. Otherwise, I kind of just stood there and waited for it to be over.

"Six minutes until Jupiter fires." _Dammit! I mentally cursed. All this time he was trying to keep me from destroying the lacrima! Gotta-_

The dust and debris around me settled, and I walked towards Totomaru, holding him up by the throat. Naturally he struggled to break loose, but I hoped I could get some info out of him easier than I had with Gajeel.

"Your answer will determine your fate. If you choose not to answer me, I'll snap your neck faster than the words can come out. I want to know, in the past, has this guild had anything to do with my father? In case you didn't know, my father was the Great Charizard."

"Damn, Gajeel...! Running your mouth again!"

"Tell me! What affiliation has Phantom had with him?! He may or may not have been killed because of you guys! If it was your guys' fault, I'll kill you all, slowly and painfully before I destroy the one who killed him."

"You live by the 'an eye for an eye' rule, don't you? Augh! Okay! Atchg! I can tell you what I know!"

"Make it quick, because I'd rather not have our guild be destroyed."

"Okay, so, our guild had no direct affiliation with your father, but we at least knew the legends of him. He was a part of a guild of dragon dwelling folk, and when Jose heard the news of your father being hunted down, it was him who told the hunters where he was hiding! I only heard of it! I wasn't a part of it! Please! Ever heard of, 'don't kill the messenger?' I swear this is all I know! I don't know why Jose would get involved in something like that! It's only what I've been told!" After a few moments of letting it sink in, I lifted him over my head and threw him like a projectile towards the giant lacrima which was starting to activate. And while he shattered it, I thought of that to be it. One and done. But as I turned my back, I felt the sword before I heard it. It may have been a broken sword, but it was still usable, as I had made the mistake of not destroying it all he way, thus he slashed me in he side with what he had left of the katana. He slashed me precisely on the middle scar on my chest, but only scratched the surface, not penetrating the katana too deep into my stomach area.

 _Damn! That actually hurts..._ I winced slightly in pain. _That'll take a while to heal. But why didn't it go any further than the skin is my question?_ Lightning quick, Totomaru appeared behind me, but I blocked an incoming wave of slashes with my arm, then flipped him over onto the ground. He seemed to be running out of stamina, so I helped him along by doing exactly what he had done previously to me; swung me around into the walls, into other crystal balls around the room, then slammed him around on the floor like he was a filthy rag. When I had finished, Totomaru was lying facedown in a etched out crater in the shape of his body, motionless unless you count the heavy rise and fall of his chest.

"That's him taken care of... but I still have Jose to beat up, and before him, I still have to stop Gajeel." I contemplated. "Since I won't be getting any answers out of him anytime, I'll hopefully beat some out of Jose."

As I started walking away, I remembered what Totomaru had said. "You're right, I live by the 'eye for an eye' rule, but I'm sure you'd be in the same mindset if you were in my shoes. It goes much deeper than wanting crushing all you Phantoms. I'll spare you, only because you're not my prey." As I turned, I felt his hand grab my ankle.

"That's... a shitty reason... tell me really... why..." he huffed. "I know... I know that's not why you spared me! Tell me... the real reason why...!"

This really did make me think. What inside me was stopping me from killing this person all of a sudden? Was it something I learned? Anything you learn, you realize you learn, right? Well, not necessarily. You can learn emotions, you can learn things blankly, you can avert your focus to something else while you do it. What was it I learned? Just then, the whole building shook, interrupting my thoughts, and the ground became unstable again.

"It's begun...!" said Totomaru.

"What...? What's going on?"

"The signal has gotten to them above that Jupiter is malfunctioning. They've resorted to that."

"What is 'that'?!"

"You'll all finally meet your demise from the giant! In case you didn't know, this guild turns into a Magic giant that casts Black Abyss, which will obliterate you all of you don't surrender."

At that moment, Jose's voice resounded, spouting out some stupid bullshit about us surrendering, bowing down to Phantom otherwise they'd kill us all, I couldn't care less at the moment. I was ready to go find out where Jose was hiding and beat him up.

"What're you gonna do? Just lay there like a rag doll and be useless?"

"I cannot fight anymore. You've won against me, showing your skills to be greater than that of my own. I never would've thought-"

"Yeah, yeah, that's great. Whatever. I have your guild to crush, so I don't care." If he was going to hold me back again, I would simply ignore him and move on. But he didn't.

As I ran through the building, I knew I was in an unfamiliar place, but I didn't let that stop me from trying to locate Jose. As I ran down the halls, I noticed two familiar guys running my way, who turned out to be none other than Gray and Elfman.

"Guys! What are you doing here?"

"We thought you might've destroyed the cannon, but we wanted to make sure," said Elfman. "I'm sure that you, being the man that you are, were able to destroy the cannon singlehandedly. It takes a real man to do that! I'm impressed!"

"Oh, uh, thanks-" I started.

"But are you manly enough to date my older sister?! That's the real question! You were manly enough to take her out on a date, but that's not manly enough by itself! Only a real man can express their love!"

"Uh... um... way to put me on the spot like that, way to bring up the totally random subject of me and Mirajane."

"I consider you a man in everything but dating my older sister! I'll protect her will all my heart!"

"Look, I would too, but the longer we stand here, the less time we'll have to track down Jose and stop his plans. I don't want to talk about this right now. Now's not the time. We should be splitting up and trying to find out just what the hell is going on."

"I agree with him. We should split and find different ways, otherwise everyone will die," said Gray.

"Straight to the point! That's a man!" shouted Elfman.

"I doubt that has anything to do with being a man," I muttered, but we all soon split up and went our separate ways.


	45. Chapter 45: The Determination

The corridors of Phantom were long and confusing, and I didn't have the faintest idea in the world of where to go. I felt like I was just running aimlessly in circles, but I never really knew if I was getting any closer to Jose.

If that wasn't enough, as I ran further into the guild, I started coming across members of Phantom, who were much tougher than before, when I had fought Phantom in their guildhall. It felt as if this stronger bunch had been maybe heard the news about what I did and were vindictively waiting for me, ready to slay me. During this trial I discovered that I wasn't as good as I wanted to be in hand-to-hand combat and ended up getting scratched and bruised, but there were moments when my life was almost taken as well.

I swear I saw my life flash before my eyes each time they came close to killing me, a little more each time. But it was the last group of mates that really came close. They blocked both my exits, slowly closing in. I had to form a strategy quick, so when the group came closer, I dashed towards one side and jumped while using Flame Kick on one guy standing in the middle, using him as a launchpad to shoot me into the other group.

"Flame Claw: Flat Style!" I had given a name to the regular Flame Claw attack, naming it accordingly due to my hand staying flat. The physical hit itself was enough to knock them back, then the arched wave of fire that expanded out from the curve I swung knocked them down again. The group behind me began to rush towards me, but while I was using that guy as a launchpad, I had quickly set down another attack that would soon take effect; Magma Core. First, a wall of burning magma formed in front of them, burning some of them and stopping most of them from getting to me. When they tried to go around the wall, the magma began to spread the other way, until they were all stuck and trapped inside the ball of lava.

Or, at least I thought they were all trapped.

Of course, no one can enter or escape Magma Core even with the best fireproof armor, because they themselves would disintegrate entirely, so I only had to assume that this guys that attacked me from behind when I turned around hadn't been trapped inside the Magma Core. This mage seemed to have Stone Magic and was really tough to deal with. With each step on the ground, great pillars of earth chased after me while I tried to find an opening to his attack, but the stone pillars on the sides had turned into stone walls, forcing me into the circle that he was standing in. I was able to break through the walls with Titanium Fist, but the stone was getting denser and denser as I kept punching; it seemed the more I punched, the more the wall became unbreakable. The stone walls around me got even closer in, to the point where I was getting cut and scratched by moving, until I couldn't move at all. This was about the moment I realized that I couldn't breathe, and I began to panic as I ran out of oxygen.

"Enjoy the last few moments of your life, fairy!" came the barely audible, muffled voice of the stone mage.

I couldn't use my Mega or Giga Evolution to break free of this rocky prison, and none of my attacks seemed to work… Shadow Switch wouldn't have done anything, because all that was surrounding me was darkness, Dimension Switch would teleport me back to my house and would take me too long to get back to the headquarters, not that I could move my arms or legs anyway. This also meant no summoning of my Pokémon... I felt that I had failed, and wished that I had one more chance to say goodbye to the people I loved… but it seemed like this was the end. I swear I saw my life flash before my eyes as I began to see the light…

xxxx

I heard crying coming from the upstairs. As my little legs scurried up the carpeted steps, I ran down the hall and put my ear to the guest room door.

"I hate him… I wish he'd just die! I wish he could be wiped out of existence… I hate that jerk! I hate him! ER HRRT HRRMM!" he screamed into a pillow, and from what I could hear, started beating his face with more pillows, then started throwing them across the room. Wanting to help calm him down, I opened the door and witnessed a flurry of pillows thrown against the opposite wall to him, his hair all messed up and tears and snot creating a thick membrane over his face, which I had to run into the bathroom and grab some toilet paper to wipe his face off with.

"He did something to you again, didn't he Jordon?" I asked my childhood friend.

"I hate him… he won't leave me alone! Look…" Jordon turned around and lifted up his shirt, exposing his bruised and blood covered back, and then he turned around to reveal whiplash marks running up and down his pale chest.

"I just wish… Vincent… when will it end…? I just want him to leave me alone… I can't take it anymore!"

When he said this, a sudden rage came over me. A maddening rage I had never felt before. This boy, my friend Jordon, well, he was more than a friend. He was like a brother to me, a brother I never had. And I couldn't just stand idly by while my "brother" was being beaten by his father relentlessly, every day of his miserable life. Now at the time, I didn't know what was meant when one said "child abuse". I didn't know what was going on with Lucifer. And I frankly didn't give a shit either. If only I knew cuss words back then. Unfortunately I would learn some in the few months that came, unwillingly, by Lucifer, but in the moment I cared too much for Jordon to let him get beat up like this. I couldn't, no, wouldn't stand for it.

But I was a kid, so what could I do about it?

In a time when my steel bones were still developing and becoming stronger, I was weak and vulnerable. I wanted so bad to get back at Lucifer for what he did to Jordon, for things he said to Mom. After all, Mom had taught me the "eye for an eye" rule, because in the world we lived in, things just weren't fair. "You should love your neighbors as you love yourself, yes, but to teach someone not to mess with you is showing them your power; sometimes they won't just leave you alone just because you tell them to. There are horrible people in the world and people who can even end all of existence as we know it. You show them that you're not one to be messed with," said Mom. I had nothing to go off of except for what she taught me, but that sometimes got me into trouble.

As if Lucifer abusing Jordon wasn't enough, there were these assholes from Sandgem who would go out of their way to be dicks to us whenever they got the chance. They were out every single day, and we could do nothing about it. Several months before Jordon took off, never to be seen again, we thought it would be a good idea to spend the day out on Route 201 playing in the tall grass. My powers were beginning to appear at the time, but I never really got the hang of it. My steel bones would grow naturally, but controlling my Fire Arts was difficult to do. As an stranger you'd never realize I had any powers at all. I was about 8 at the time when we came across the bullies, and they bullied us until both Jordon and I were 9. I don't remember the other twos' names, but the leader of the three douchebags was named Gilbert. He was 15, and the other two were definitely younger than him, but still around his age. Even from such a young age, I could tell that the two kids were only following Gilbert because they were nervous and insecure. The day when Jordon and I were playing on Route 201, I remember so well; we were crouched down in the grass, spying on a Pidgey that was taking a crap, both of us giggling like the immature kids we were, when suddenly the Pidgey was kicked out of the way and flew off in a panic, screeching like mad.

"H-hey!" cried Jordon.

"What the heck was that-" I started, but as I looked up at the towering figure of this kid who I could've sworn I'd seen before, my voice grew quieter and quieter until all and any sound from my vocal chords ceased.

"'What the heck was that?' he says," guffawed the tall kid. As he bent down to mock us still, I made out the details of him; I remember he always wore a gray hat backwards with some of his orange locks streaming out of the hole in his hat. His oily face closely resembled a mountain range, with the slightest bit of facial hair and yellow teeth that looked and smelled like he just lunched on an entire McDonalds dumpster, save for the sparkly new braces in his mouth that he was sure to muck up during his next meal. His small eyes reflected that of what little intelligence he had, which I'm sure even a Magikarp would have more braincells than this kid, with thick and bushy ginger sideburns and an almost unibrow and the most hair-stuffed nostrils that made me question how this kid could even breathe. He always wore this black ACDeoxC tank underneath this button down shirt and blue jeans held up by a thick, black leather belt with a great bronze buckle.

"Why did you-"

"Bladablehblehbluhbleh." The kid interrupted my sentence by spewing out brainless babble which confirmed the number brain cells he had in his head; a huge whopping zero cells.

"What the h-"

Again, he acted like a dumbass.

"Why-"

Speaking was futile at this point, but I decided to give it one more shot by trying to speak very quicky, with no luck, as the shitty son of a bitch spewed out even more bullshit. I was starting to wonder if he was born with two assholes.

I getting really frustrated at this point, so I stood up, and that's when I noticed a big height difference. I was pretty tall for my age, but this kid was like, 6'2". I was 4'9". Jordon was 4'2". Despite this, I still tried my best to stand up to this bully.

"Jerk." I uttered only one word, the only "curse" word I knew. That would change in less than a year's time.

"Oh! Oh no! He called me a jerk! I'm so insulted!" Of course I knew what sarcasm was, and it was greatly humiliating.

"Oh, I'm gonna die! He called me a jerk! OH! How terrible!" He continued his act, falling backwards with his arm comically draped over his large forehead, the other two kids catching him and laughing their asses off.

"What's your problem?" I yelled at him.

"What's _your_ problem? You were the one who started it!"

"No I wasn't!" I stupidly protested.

"Oh, so now you wanna argue, you little prick? _You're_ in _my_ way," he lied.

"Why did you kick that Pidgey out of the way?"

"What're you, deaf? I said it was in my way! And so're you, you little prick!"

"Why do you have to be such a jerk? I wasn't doing anything to you!" As I spoke, he pushed me, making me lose my balance and fall to the ground.

"You don't even know who I am, do you? Huh?" He towered over me, and before I could react, he grabbed my shirt and tried to pull me up. However, with the metal slowly developing and replacing my regular bone, I was much heavier than any average kid, so all he ended up doing was suspending me off the ground for a short bit as he struggled and made a fool out of himself, trying to pick me up. I wanna say that I was easily over 190 pounds, already over average of a 15 year old boy. This wasn't strong, and I could tell, and he could tell that I could tell. He tried to lift me using both hands, but had to let me go as I dropped to the ground with an audible _thud_. He couldn't admit defeat, but rather spit on us instead and walked away extremely irritated.

"The name's Gilbert, losers. Don't you forget it," he called as he and his lackeys trudged away. I haven't been able to forget ever since.

The following weeks, we thought we could play outside in a different location, but Gilbert and his buddies went after us still. The other two held me captive while they forced me to watch Gilbert take a brass knuckle out of his pocket and proceed to pummel Jordon with it. I struggled to break free, but tried not to cry out, because Mom had taught me that if I showed signs of displeasure, then they would continue to do me harm. Speaking of, now that I think of it, we should've just let Mom handle matters instead of taking on those bullies ourselves. Every time I thought I could take them on, I couldn't do anything because I wasn't strong enough to break free of their grasps, and so the bullying continued.

Weeks and weeks passed by, and during that time, Jordon and I tried to come up with a way to get back at Gilbert and his gang. We resolved to not go outside after a while, and tried to be careful not to let Gilbert and the others know where we lived. For a while, we actually began to enjoy life, as Jordon stayed away from Lucifer's wrath most of the time, and the bullies left us alone. Or rather, we didn't give them a chance to bother us.

It was the day at the lake that would change things.

xxxx

There we were, two innocent- actually, innocent is not an appropriate word for it... two _young_ children, two lads, skipping stones across the lake. On the other side was my father's grave, and we went to go check it out. I couldn't help but feel a slight twinge of sadness, even at that age, that stage of immaturity. As we stood at the grave, I felt this sudden pulse. It was barely noticeable, but I definitely recall feeling something. Like an aura radiating off of the grave itself. I began to warm up, and I felt... strong.

But if a peg is sticking up, it's only natural to wanna hammer it back down again, right?

From behind us, two clammy hands gripped our shoulders and applied the right amount of pressure to make us wince in pain.

"Well. Look what we got here. Two little pricks dicking around the lake," growled Gilbert's voice.

I didn't dare turn around, but still stood up to him nonetheless, because I felt powerful at that moment. "What do you want now? You obviously don't own the lake, so why are you bothering us?"

"Alright, that's it. I've just about had it with your bullshit. Both of you. It's time I taught you both some manners." He pulled out, not the usual brass knuckle, but rather a glove with metal playing on it, enough to knock out teeth. Then he grabbed Jordon, while the other two held me hostage, as usual. But as Jordon took his beating, I felt surge a great energy from within. A powerful force that made me brave, that wouldn't allow me to be held captive by these two idiots in their sweaty hands while my best friend just sat there, crying and pleading for mercy, but getting none.

At this point, I didn't care what Gilbert had going on in his life. I didn't give a shit what his past was like, what people cared for him, because I certainly did not.

Anger. As I had always felt. It coursed, flooded my being, and the angrier I got, the hotter my soul burned, the more rage began to engulf me entirely, and in their paws, my arms ignited in an instant, burning brightly, brilliantly, forcing my captives to release me as they desperately tried to put out the flames on their raw hands as if they had just touched hot lava. Even for a young age, I thought that to be an impressive temperature to reach. Now, only my arms were ignited, but that was enough for me. Free from the other two, I began to bravely march towards Gilbert with both my arms engulfed in hot, waving flames. He became distracted from beating up Jordon and instead turned his attention to me, but then stopped dead in his tracks once he saw the burning fires of my arms. With a good punch, I socked him in the gut while he was distracted and confused, then tackled him to the ground and began giving him a taste of the pain he brought to us, relentlessly beating on him, letting loose punch after flaming punch even after begging me, pleading me to stop.

"HOW DO YOU LIKE IT?! HUH? HOW DO YOU LIKE IT WHEN I SMASH YOUR FACE IN?! YOU WANT ME TO STOP? HOW ABOUT NO!" All at once, I unleashed all of my pent up anger, not just towards Gilbert, but at Lucifer as well. After his face was a bloodied, bruised purple spectacle, I dragged him over to the waterside and began dyeing the water pink with his blood, holding him under until he nearly drowned like some kind of torture chamber. As he gasped for air, I shoved his head back under until his movements began to slow, then dragged him to dry ground where I clasped my hands together and pounded them down onto his chest repeatedly, making him ferociously hack up water and blood.

I was proud of Jordon for teaching to other two a lesson by kicking the whole they were on the ground. I mean, he didn't nearly kill them, but caused enough damage, or as much as he was able to. On the other hand, my arms were still ignited, and I used this, holding my burning hand to his ugly face, giving him second degree burns in the end.

"How does it feel? Huh?! How does it feel for the bully to be beaten up? Pretty backwards, isn't it?" If I knew the words "oxymoron" and "ironic" back then, I would've used them to the fullest. "When you can stand, you're gonna walk home and get your friends to do this too; tell your mom and dads what you've done to us for the past months, but you're not gonna tell them what I did to get back at you. You're gonna tell them that you and your friends fought over who would kill us first. And if you don't," In mid sentence, I held up my still flaming arms and pointed towards Gilbert. "... then I'll kill you. That'll teach you not to bully anyone ever again. Get out of here!" With one final sock, I knocked him to the ground, and he scrambled to his feet and darted away, his cronies following behind him.

Jordon and I walked home, but didn't tell Mom about anything. We just blamed any and all of Jordon's bruises on Lucifer. Luckily, she never went over to confront him. As for the bullies, I assumed they moved out, because Jordon and I never saw them again. Then again, Jordon wasn't there for much longer, only like three more months or so.

xxxx

My eyes opened, or at least tried to. I couldn't breathe or move, but after playing back that victory against Gilbert again in my head, I became invigorated to take action.

I realized; if I could prove that I was stronger than those bullies, then I could break out of this stone prison!

Normally, I would've closed my eyes, but they were already closed, and I couldn't breathe to focus, not that I had an Air Magic spell to allow me to hold my breath, not that I could cast it, not that I could do much of anything. But I could feel something. Something waiting to burst out of my skin, waiting to break free and explode. In real time, the flashback I had was only a few seconds long, because I needed air and was about to die. But the brief flashback, it triggered something from within, connected to my Fire Arts. As I began to lose consciousness, the mass amount of energy stored from within expanded, and in the moment before I was about to die of oxygen deprivation, all of the stone around me crumbled and cracked, and an explosion of great proportions rocked the entire building. Flames surged through the halls of the enemy guild, the sheer force of the blast crushing the walls and incinerating anyone who stood in the way. The force of the fire, the pent up anger from abuse and bullying long past now fresh and alive once again crushed the enemy target and confined all in the blast to oblivion, blowing a huge chunk out of the building. From far away, it may have just looked like a small little explosion, but this was due to the comparison to the size of the immense guild and the confined space of the blast, preventing it from reaching its full potential.

I nearly blacked out, but after the blast subsided, I dropped to my knees and fell over, desperately taking in giant gulps of oxygen into my lungs. It wasn't until a few minutes later when I was able to regain a bit of strength.

"Huff... huh... that... huh... wow," was all I could utter. I suddenly realized that the explosion had incinerated my clothes, and I was completely in the nude. I quickly Summoned some clothes, then frantically Summoned everything to make sure my scarf was safe. It was. I had no jacket, which had burned up. I figured I would get a better jacket, but despite that which was unsolvable at the moment, I still felt like I was missing something. Doing a quick run-through of my possessions, I found what I was looking for: my fedora. Wearing a scarf with it would've looked weird, so I wore the hat alone. I felt bare without a jacket, but a T-shirt and some jeans would do.

I ran further into the guild, desperately trying to find the way to Jose, but with all the halls and corridors looking similar, I felt like I was going in circles. After running around for what seemed aimlessly for several minutes, I came to a door, to my relief. There was a long room/hallway, and at the end of the room was a window, broken and someone lying weak near the edge. That someone was Elfman.

"Elfman...? Elfman! Are you alright- gah!" Suddenly, the ground under my feet lifted me up, making my balance unstable.

"What the hell...? _Who_ the hell...?" A figure rose up and took the shape of a slim figure with a monocole and green hair, and a twirly moustache.

"Allow me to introduce myself, _mon amie_. I am known as Sol of the Element 4. Oh, but no need for introduction from yourself, as I already know who you are. You are none other than the mighty Vincent of Fairy Tail. You use special, non-magic attacks called Fire/Steel Arts, and you use a _forbidden_ Magic called Dimension Magic."

"What...? I'm not gonna ask how you knew all that because I'm not tryna engage with no stalker, but, what...? My Dimension Magic is... forbidden?"

" _Oui, mon amie_. Just like Dragon Slayer Magic, or Lost Magic, your magic is a special type of Magic that can only be passed down, just like your _Fire/Steel Arts_."

"...! Just how much do you actually know...?!"

"Ho ho ho! When you walked over me just now, I was able to read your entire history. I have to say, yours is much different from those other opponents I have defeated. Very interesting, you come from the Regions on the other side of this continent. I know pretty much everything about you now. Especially some of your deepest, darkest secrets, such as who you lov-" Once he said that, my fist made contact with his ugly face, but then he dropped down and became sand.

"Arrgh... _come out, you coward!_ " I yelled. No response. I took this opportunity to go help Elfman, who seemed to be hurt.

"Elfman! Speak to me, man! Are you alright?" I kneeled down at his side and shouted frantically. He was covered in scratches and bruised and battered. Elfman stirred and opened his eyes.

"Ughh... I'm alright. You're a real man, helping out a fellow guild mate..." he muttered.

"Elfman, this isn't a time to rate my manliness! You're hurt, dude! I know you're doing your best to keep up, but you should get some medical attention now!"

Elfman sat up. "A real man doesn't need medical attention- ouh!" groaned Elfman. I bent down to help him, but he raised his hand. "No... don't. I'm fine. I-" Elfman was interrupted by a certain earthy punch that blasted him out of the window, and me to the floor, far back.

"E... _Elfman_!" I ran to the window, but was pulled back by Sol, but then I noticed that Sol had multiplied. I assumed he created many clones from the dust of the earth to look like him, and this disturbed me greatly. I took a mad dash towards the broken window, pulled back by his many clones. Luckily, I heard Elfman shout, "It's alright! I'm fine!" Reassuring enough, but then I heard him call back, "I hate to admit it, but I could use a bit of help over here!"

"Urrghhh...! I'm in a bit of a pickle myself, dude! If this guy'll get his... nasty paws offa me...!" Mid sentence, I let loose a Fire Shield and looked out the window. For a short second before I was dragged back, I saw Mirajane, half stuck in the hand of the giant robot, Elfman desperately trying to get her out. When she saw me appear, she screamed out to me, "Vincent! _Help me!_ "

Before I could react, I immediately got dragged back, and started to be slammed around.

"Oh non monsieur! I cannot let you get angry on me! Cannot let you save your little friends either! After all, she is being punished by the master for making a fool of him! Now she will pay!" As he swung me around with a giant fist, I had no chance of moving my arms, which meant no casting of Magic, again, and I couldn't free myself with Steel Morph because it wasn't stable enough to use. And with my hands practically glued to my sides, no Pokémon could be Summoned. My last resort was to use Fire Arts and create a Fire Shield or Flare Blast, but a Flare Blast would be too risky, with Elfman and Mirajane just below. My anger wouldn't get me out of this one; Sol had seen ahead with his stupid power.

This was a tough opponent.

I _was_ angry, angry enough to destroy the entire guild by myself. But trapped here, all my moves read, I would have to focus. Despite being swung and slammed around like a mace, I still could focus.

First step was ignoring the pain. Tough to do, but I closed my eyes and blocked out all outside feeling and fear of being killed. And I just breathed...

Second step was focusing on the energy from every single cell in my body, to produce enough fire energy to break free. I couldn't miss a single one, as every single one counted.

The second step was where I struggled the most. I felt myself beat up, but couldn't seem to get it. Trying my best not to lose my focus, I concentrated more...

... then I lost it, and realized what was happening. Yet again, I was on the verge of death, bloodied and bruised yet again, but far heavier this time. With all the blood loss, I was starting to lose consciousness, but then from out of nowhere, a monster, beast, whatever you'd like to call it, freed me from the grasp. It caught me as I fell to the floor, and laid me down.

"Huh...? What's..." It was difficult to speak, but the beast put its hand over my mouth.

"Don't speak. If anything, you need medical attention. You gotta push through it, like a man!"

"Elfman...?" I groaned.

"It's me. I've finally mastered it..."

"Mastered what...?"

"The Full Body Takeover... but that doesn't matter, because you need-"

I sprang up, suddenly full of vitality. "WAIT! Where's..." Glancing behind Elfman, I saw that Mira was safely sitting down. This alone put me at peace, and I was able to breathe a sigh of relief.

Using my Giga Evolution to grow larger, I held Sol in my metal fist, threatening to burn him instantly if he slipped out, with Elfman standing underneath.

"Naturally, I want some answers outta you. Bet you didn't see this coming," I growled.

"But that is where you are wrong, _mon amie_. I can read all of- AUUUGH!" Igniting my fist, I shut him up before he could get another word out.

"Listen, fucker. I don't care what you can see or can't see with your all-seeing-omnipresent-Magic, alright? Just answer what I tell you." As I spoke, I began to head out into the corridor. "Tell me the way to Jose, otherwise I'll burn you to a crisp. That is, if I don't crush you first." Sol saw no other option, and sighed and told me the directions.

"While we're walking, why don't we have a little time to talk? But before we do..." I turned back to Elfman, but keeping my fist out in front of me so that I could see Sol the entire time. "Elfman, take Mira back to the guild!"

"I will. Go on ahead! That's a real man, taking initiative!" With that, he left the guild and I followed Sol's directions to Jose.

After telling him about my father, most of which he knew, I asked the one question I wanted the answer to. "So tell me. And you're gonna tell me everything you know, just like Totomaru did. What affiliation did Jose have with my father's death?"

"You expect me to just tell you that? Haha- AUGH-" Flames instantly cloaked my fist, but Sol didn't let up. Luckily, we were just about at Jose's room, so I slammed him to the floor and held his throat. Not wanting the pressure to build up too great, I de-Evolved back into Mega Evolution.

"Tell me. **NOW**!"

"And what good will it do you, knowing who killed you father, and/or had any affiliation with his death? You are asking the wrong person. I honestly know nothing. But if you must, then Jose is waiting for you beyond this door." With that, he began to sink into the floor.

"Wait! Get back here!"

"Adieu, monsieur! May we meet again!"

 _Rrghh... there's nothing that I can do about it now..._ I thought. _I'll have to face Jose, though, I don't know how strong he'll be._ But boldly, I stepped through the door, ready to face a guild master.


	46. Chapter 46: The Masters

Remaining in my Mega Evolution, I kicked the double doors to Jose's room. There was going to be hell to pay.

" _JOSE!_ " I bellowed. Jose smirked from his seat, which slowly formed into a maniacal, twisted smile, in which a hollow, sadistic cackle was emitted from.

"Well if it isn't Mr. Fedora. Look who was brave enough to defend his entire guild by himself, only to find it futile, for he hasn't come to the realization that he's fighting a-"

"Shut it, you old hag. I'm not doing this just for my guild. If I wasn't a part of my guild, I'd still go after you, and every single Dark Guild in all of Earthland. I don't care that you're a guild master. In fact, I couldn't care less. I have my reasons for going after you alone. I have some questions that I want you to answer, and you _will_ answer them," I growled. I figured I'd test Jose to see if he would lie, since Sol did.

"Hmph. You should know how to treat your elders. Know your place, _peasant!_ " he shot back at me, unleashing a dark purple stream of Magic Energy. At this point, my steel arm was my main form of defense, which I held up, blocking the incoming attack, flaming myself up for extra protection.

"! What's this? A Mage who cannot only deflect but nullify my attack entirely and use Fire Magic? Interesting. A worthy opponent, you will-"

"I said shut it! Frankly, who gives a shit about what my attack types are? I want you to answer my question, and if I think you're lying, I'll burn you to ashes." I knew the answer, but asked anyway, testing Jose. "Do you know the Great Charizard?"

For the briefest second, I swear that I could see a great, haunting fear behind his eyes, but this he hid with his usual, sadistic smirk.

"So you're a survivor of the Legion, I suppose? That filthy Legion of filthy dragons-"

" _DO NOT CALL THE LEGION THAT MY FATHER DIED TO PROTECT FILTHY!_ " I bellowed.

"Ah, so your father was a part of the Legion, was he? Just another soldier, was he?"

"My father… is not… _'just another soldier'!_ My father was to be the next leader of the Legion itself… knowing how well known he was, I'll have you know… the Great Charizard was _my father!_ I'm here to find out if you had any affiliation or any lead to his death."

"And what good will it do you, knowing who killed your father? Surely you can't beat me. I'm one of the Ten Wizard Saints!"

"I don't _care_ who you are, how powerful you think you are or what titles you have. Everyone asks me the same question, 'what good will it do me, knowing who killed my father?'. You know what I'll do? I'll find the person who killed him, as well as anyone involved, and kill them all mercilessly, the _exact same way_ they killed him."

"Hmph. And what was that? How did they kill him?" Jose said with a devilish grin, causing me to grit my teeth in frustration.

"... you're lying. No, you know. You know exactly who killed him, and how they did it," I growled menacingly.

"Well, that's something you'll never know, because why should I tell you?" he retorted, bending down into a battle stance. "That's classified information, isn't it?" With a snap, a sudden burst of fiery rage, I rushed forward towards Jose with a mighty cry, jumping at him with a Lightning spell ready.

" _You bastard! I'LL FUCKING MURDER YOU!_ " I prepared to use my strongest Lightning Magic attack, Disaster Volt, but then I realized that I didn't have enough Magic Energy to cast it when I tried. That particular spell, being as strong as it was, used up quite a lot of Magic Energy. In the single moment that I missed, Jose unleashed a blind fury of punches and kicks, powerful enough to bring me to the ground, but like any other opponent, realized that he would have to damage me some other way without bringing harm to himself.

"And this is why I choose not to fight my opponents head-on..." muttered Jose, waving out his hand in pain.

"What're you muttering, you idiot?!" While on the ground, I shot a Flare Burst out of my hands at him, but thanks to his great reflexes, my attack was naught.

"Hmph. And that's all you have? Then it's my turn." With a wave of his hand, he summoned many black, ghastly Shades that went straight for me. I tried to dodge by rolling out of the way and running from them, but they pursued me still. Eventually, I had enough sense to destroy them with a single Mega Flame Ball, but Jose didn't let up and summoned more as if he had an endless supply of them. After several rounds of dodging, destroying, and constantly getting phased through by Shades, I realized that I had to attack Jose, otherwise the Shades would never stop coming.

"I could do this all day, you know. It's rather fun, watching you scramble like mad to avoid getting the life sucked out of you by my Shades."

"Why don't you fight me for real instead of getting your... imaginary friends to do your dirty work?" I rushed in to attack, but he dodged swiftly and sent a Shade through me quickly, causing me to drop down, sapped of yet more energy.

"I'm simply demonstrating a taste of my true power. This is only the beginning, fairy." With yet another Shade to dodge, I rushed in for another attack, but his quick reflexes caused me to miss once again, and the SHade from behind rushed through me, taking even more energy.

"Soon you'll be nothing but a lifeless shell of a body! You say you want to defend your guild? And you want to defend your father's legacy? How sad. How weak and pathetic you are."

I smirked and dodged yet another Shade he threw at me. "Yeah? Well, you haven't witnessed my true power yet, either. This is only the beginning, ya old hag. Throw whatever you want at me, but not fighting me one-on-one makes you the pathetic one."

"You're not even worthy enough to see my power, you weakling. Get out of my sight!" Summoning ten more Shades with a wave of his hand, I shot through the Shades with a Flare Burst, which I thought would reach Jose. But he moved out of the way before the beam could reach him and continued to summon Shades. My Magic Energy was completely depleted at this point, so I couldn't use any spells, leaving me with my Fire/Steel Arts which were draining just as quickly, and my Pokémon... it was time for my Pokémon to take action once again.

"Go Pikachu." Summoning Pikachu's ball in a quick manner and tossing it out into battle, Pikachu appeared in a yellow flash, cheeks sparky and tail tough. I knew that Pikachu was lightning quick and possibly had quicker reflexes than Jose, so he was my best bet.

"Ah, so you lecture me about fighting one-on-one, but yet you get your own pets to fight for you? How hypocritical, I must say. I thought you were better than that."

"Since _you_ won't fight me one-on-one, I thought I might as well do the same. Let you taste your own medicine, y'know? Yeah, whatever. Pikachu, home in on him and use Quick Attack." Pikachu obeyed, darting towards Jose at top speed and bashing into him before he had a chance to react.

"Great, follow it up with a Mega Kick!" Pikachu somersaulted in the air and slammed his foot down towards Jose, but then Jose grabbed Pikachu by the leg and slammed him to the ground instead. He then tried slamming his own foot down on Pikachu, but Pikachu was able to dodge, and while all this was happening, I dashed in to land a Flame Punch, but Jose was well aware of his surroundings and shot a Shade directly in my face so I punched it instead. I hoped for my punch to go through and hit Jose, but he had moved out of the way and was busy dealing with Pikachu.

"Use Thunder." I waved my hand at Pikachu, in which he leaped into the air and sent a bolt of electricity down onto Jose who couldn't dodge something traveling at the speed of light. Finally, we had gotten a hit in, but it was no time to celebrate, as I dashed in once again, but this time stopped short, faking Jose out, who appeared behind me, but a single moment of hesitation on his part was all I needed to swing my right arm around and slug him with a Flame Claw, Flat Style. However, I hadn't strategized any further than this, so I was starting to get a bit cocky and really let my guard down as I jumped up to land a Crushing Stomp onto Jose. However, he naturally rolled out of the way to dodge, but this time, he didn't summon a Shade. He turned to me with an angry look.

In fact, he didn't just look angry, he looked _FUCKING PISSED._

"You... you _dare_ attack me like that?! Now you shall see, the power...!" Suddenly, a dark pulse; a malevolent aura spread throughout the wide area. "So you want to see my true power, you maggot?! The last thing you shall ever see before you die is the great power of _Phantom Lord! **Dark Pulse!**_ " With a wave of his hand and a flash, a great blast erupted from the floor, causing me to shield my eyes. The blast did nothing more than a strong gust of wind, but like a gust of wind, it blew off my fedora and singed it a bit. Grabbing it from the ground and dusting it off a bit, I emerged from the smoke practically unscathed.

"Your true power. Uh huh. You're telling me your 'true power' creates a little light show and an updraft that blows off my hat? Bravo, bravo," I mocked.

"You will be _quiet,_ fairy, otherwise I will **destroy you!** Shadow Gauntlet!" Cloaking his hand in dark, purple energy, he threw a fist at me, making the shadows chase after me, tackling me to the ground.

"Ungh!" I hit the floor hard, and the dark shadowy energy continued to beat on me until I blasted it away with a Mega Flame Ball.

"Now to finish you! Shade Entangle!" The shadows coiled around my weakened body, lifting me high into the air, constricting me and causing me much pain as I cried out in helpless agony.

"Scream all you want, little fairy. No one will ever hear y-" At that moment, however, someone _did_ hear me and burst through the door just as I had done. Someone with requipping armor and a mighty, darkness-repelling sword. That, who was none other than the fierce Erza Scarlet.

"This has gone on long enough, Jose Porla! You've done enough harm to the members of Fairy Tail! I've come to stop you," bellowed Erza.

"Erza... don't...! I can... handle him- AAUUURRGHH...!" Jose tightened the dark coils around me, making me scream even louder. Such an awfully embarrassing position to be in, helplessly hung in the air, practically immobilized by the wrath of my enemy! _Me_ , immobilized by the enemy?! I didn't think so. "I can... handle this!"

"The more you struggle, little fairy, the more _pain_ you will receive!" Another binding of the shadowy vines caused me to struggle and groan in distress.

" _That's enough!_ Let him go!" shouted Erza, leaping up and slashing her sword at Jose, who naturally dodged her attack, but at the same time let me go. Seeing the opportunity, I ran to Erza's side and raised my arm to prepare a fire attack.

"Vincent! What were you thinking, going after Jose like that?" scolded Erza.

"He lied. I was testing him to see if he would act like he didn't know," I angrily muttered, unleashing Flare Burst out of my hands, which I followed up with a whole array of other fire attacks.

"What do you mean? Have you gone mad? You could've died, acting so rashly like that! You must learn to control your anger!"

"I under _stand_ that, but he..." I swiftly dodged an incoming barrage of attacks from Jose, who looked like he had had enough. "He... was a cause of _my father's death!_ " Erza had nothing really to say to this statement. She opened her mouth a couple of times but just decided to stay quiet. Then after a few more minutes of running around and dodging, finally getting to attack Jose now that two of us were teaming up against him, she had thought of something to say that was carefully thought through.

"You've been through a lot, haven't you? Well, so have I, but I try to forget..." she trailed off. "But either way, although we all have people we have a grudge against, people we want to go after, that still doesn't change the situation we're in right now. I understand fully what you mean, but..."

"No... you could never understand... I never even _saw_ my father, let alone _know_ him, but it's not just our lost bond... never mind, I don't want to talk about it. I can't be made to think about it. I..." I trailed off as well, forcing myself to think of something else. but in forcing myself to think otherwise, I realized what I had been doing was selfish. I had been selfish and rash; stupid, even. I hadn't cared for anyone but myself and my father. This war had been raging around me, but my blinders had been on and closed because I was being stupid and acting childlike. There's a distinction between fury and indignation. Fury can be described as uncontrolled savagery, while indignation is more of anger with a purpose. The thing was, I had no purpose or meaning behind my motives. I mean, save for the fact that I wanted my father's killer dead and all, but beyond that, I had no power behind my actions, nothing to fuel my intent. I was lost and alone in this darkness with nothing but a flame. That which could be interpreted as a hot rage or a burning passion with no clear objective. I didn't know how to interpret it, because I didn't understand much of anything. I was like a child in a grown-up's body.

But I had realized what was at stake now. I wasn't fighting this war for my own selfish gain. One doesn't fight a war for their own personal gain. They're on a side, and they fight for their side, their people. What I was _really_ fighting for... were the people of Fairy Tail.

And yet, this I realized while one of my fellow guildmates were actually _in_ trouble.

As I came back to reality, I realized that Erza had been taken up by the similar shadowy coils that had previously tortured me.

"Ahh! Vincent, come back to your senses! Help... augh...!" screamed Erza as she struggled to break free from the grasp of Jose.

"Not another move, otherwise I'll squeeze the life out of your fellow guild member. Not like I won't do it anyway! Hahahaha!" Jose cackled as he tightened the ropes, bringing yet more pain to Erza. But this time, I felt something different. No longer was I feeling the intense rage of my father's killer, as hard as it was, but rather, I felt the surge and energy of the moment, and how I'd resolve my current problem as opposed to my ultimate goal.

"No. You will not," I spoke at last. I knew I was taking another risk with the amount of energy I had at the moment, but this was my trump card, and I would use it. With another burst of energy, I evolved once more into my Giga Evolution and immediately noticed; the pressure was much less than before.

"You will let her go if only to constrain me in her place. Let her go this instant or I will kill you. I've already spared you long enough, but I dot appreciate liars. You won't get away with this, Jose."

"Oh? And who determines that? Your dead father? Your mother?" A burst of rage shot through me, but I realized that he was deliberately trying to enrage me, so I averted my focus to the task at hand. And thinking about it, this was clearly more important than my own selfish goals.

"I can't believe you're trying to use my parents as a reason to make me move, just to kill my fellow guildmate. You're disgusting, you know that? I speak from not just my thoughts, but rather from everyone in Fairy Tail. You disgust me, you putrid, black-hearted son of a bitch. How dare you use my parents against me. I'll kill you, but not for that reason." It was extremely difficult not to say it, but I managed to squeeze it out and not add "not _just_ for that reason", for it would contradict every previous thought. "I say this on my and my entire guild's behalf. You may have incapacitated out master, but if you ever mess with us, ever again, then it doesn't matter how big of an army you may have. We will defeat you, and then I'll seek you out personally and kill you without regret or a second thought. Now let Erza go this instant..." Then I held out my palm and a ball of flame erupted from my palm. "... or your head will be where this Flame Ball sits when I'm done with you."

"I'd like to see you try, little fairy. I'm not intimidated by you, nor Titania Erza, or anyone in your guild, not even your guild master. As a matter of fact, I'm not even intimidated by the Council. Not even the lord of the land. Not even the gods above intimidate me. I should be the king in that sense. I should be the king of the world and then I'll really show you all who's boss. And when all's said and done, I wouldn't ever give you mercy, all because of Mr. Mighty Fedora here. I hope you realized what you've done for your guild. Then they'll all turn against you, realizing that you were the one who doomed them all. You-"

"That's enough! Enough with that! That which you speak is false." This time, Erza spoke out. "We would never turn against our own members! What you'd never understand due to the fact that you care not for your own guild members is that you are heartless! Fairy Tail and Phantom May be equals in strength, but what really defines us... is that we as Fairy Tail are like an entire family! You wouldn't ever understand that because you don't treat your guild members as a family, but rather your slaves!" In this time that Erza was speaking to Jose, I rushed forward and unleashed my greatest possible Flame Ball, Monster Flame Ball, causing Jose to lose his grip on the energy and smacking him away.

"You... will bring no more harm... _to Erza Scarlet!_ " I yelled, stepping in front of Erza, defending her as if she was a sister. And at the moment, she _was_ my sister. For extra caution, I put up my Fire Shield and watched over Erza carefully. It felt weird, watching over my superior. But I couldn't let any of my friends be harmed any more. I couldn't, and anyone who did... I'd _kill_ them.

"Game's over, Jose. Enough of-" I couldn't explain the feeling I felt next. It felt as if my stomach was churning, or maybe I got socked in the gut. And that the fist passed through my organs and out through the other side.

" _Vincent...!_ Are you alright?! Curse you Jose...!" cried Erza as she crawled over to me. I could not breathe, or really feel anything but pain in my abdomen.

"That's it. I will spare you no longer, fairy," growled Jose, towering over Erza and I. I felt like I was about to pass out again, so I loosened the strain by de-Evolving back into my regular form. The excruciating pain only continued to grow, but the feeling of passing out was much less. I wasn't about to pass out once again like a wimp. I had already been incapacitated three times that day, and I wasn't about to end it by passing out. It would not be the end of me, I decided. Slowly, I rose up.

"You... will not... kill me...! I refuse... I refuse to die...!"

"Refuse all you want, but-" Then with a mighty slice, Erza slashed at Jose, but with his great reflexes he was able to dodge all of her incoming attacks. I knew that she was buying me some time, though I could hardly stand. But nevertheless, I struggled to my feet, for the guild, for my father's legacy, for anyone really, I didn't care. I just wanted Jose dead. I just wanted Phantom to fall by our hands. I just wished that the pain would go away. Everything started to fade slowly as I trudged weakly towards Jose and Erza, but I fought the pain and prepared a fire attack.

But luckily, our lives were saved by a figure that smashed through the window, seeming to hover off the ground. It was short and looked like a certain old man, one that both Erza and I knew well.

"Master!"

"M-Makarov...!"

Makarov stepped down with a menacing look in his eye, marching slowly towards Erza and Jose.

"The blood of my children have been spilled, and that is unforgivable. I worry not about the destruction of our guild, but the moment our members are harmed, by your hands especially, then I will stand by no longer while more of my children are harmed. This war has gone on long enough, Jose. It's time to end this, here and now!" bellowed Makarov in the mightiest of voices. "Children, you must leave. Erza, take Vincent with you. And get him medical attention right away. Those are some nasty wounds. You too, Erza. You need medical attention as well."

"Master..."

"No... Makarov... he... Jose... he did... unforgivable... I must... kill him..."

"You will do nothing of the sort! I know what he did. And I'm sorry for you, Vincent, but you must leave."

"If that's what the master desires, then we must follow his orders. Let's go, Vincent."

But I didn't want to leave just yet. I didn't believe Makarov was talking about my father, but at the same time, there was a part of me that didn't want to doubt him.

"Wait... Makarov..."

"Leave! _Now!_ " he yelled. At the sound of this, Erza grabbed my arm and led me out of the smashed window.

"Do you have your bird with you?" she asked impatiently.

"I always have him... with me..." I replied weakly as I Summoned Fearow and climbed onto him. Erza climbed on behind me and held on tight as Fearow dove down towards the guild. But I'm not even sure if it was our guild anymore because now it sat in ruins.

As Fearow landed, Erza climbed off and then I practically slid off like a rag doll and called him back. With all the strain I was putting on myself to stay awake, I was able to release it all. I was still unsatisfied by my not being able to defeat Jose myself, but as a godly light shone from the enemy guild, I thought to myself, _That'll do for now._ Then I passed out from exhaustion.


	47. Chapter 47: The Aftermath

The next thing I remember after blacking out was waking up in snowy field, once again. But this time, what I was able to make out in the gray, bleak blizzard was no shadow at all, but a light... the light was the blue flame of a tail; a legendary flame...

A blue flame...

Blue...

"...! Dad...!"

The next thing I knew, I was awake with my arm outstretched, as if reaching for the stars.

I then realized that I had no idea where I was.

"So you've finally woken, have you? If you're healed up, hurry and leave," came a not-so-pleasant sounding old lady voice.

"... wait, what? I'm kinda confused."

"What I'm saying is, you're healthy now, so there's the door! Be on your way! Good day!" All this she managed to get out as she basically shoved me out the door, onto the ground, and slammed the door on me. As I stood up to leave, the door opened one more time, and my shirt I had been wearing was hurled out the door straight into my face.

"Uh... can you at least tell me how to get back to Fairy Tail...?" I called politely. There was silence for a good thirty seconds, and then came the curt response of "Follow the path," from the other side of the door. And that was exactly what I did.

xxxx

When I returned to the guild (which was still in ruins, by the way) I was surprised to see no one there, so I decided to go home for the day. It was just as well too, as I had some things I needed to think about. I needed a break from all the hectic action, just some time to think and breathe.

The second I entered my house, I slid on a pair of shorts and fell on my bed. It was a heavenly feeling, laying down on what seemed like a cloud after smashing into so many floors of opposite feeling. As I lay quietly upon the patterned comforter, a much unwanted lazy feeling invaded my senses, yet I didn't have the strength to fight it and allowed it consume my being.

It didn't occur to me what day it was, as I could've been sleeping for days. And when I checked the time and date on my phone, it was... three days after the attack on the guild! I could already tell that it was about late afternoon from walking back to my house, but I imagined it would be the very next day, not three days after the attack.

It would be what it was, and I had to leave it at that. It's not like I could rewind time. And to be quite honest, I wouldn't have want to if I knew what waited three days ago.

According to Gray when everyone returned the following day, they had been interrogated by soldiers from the Council. It wasn't very pleasant, according to him (though I hadn't for a moment imagined it would be) and they didn't let up or let anyone go until all the information they needed was sufficient.

Lucy wasn't fairing especially well, as she had the face as if she had committed a crime and was on her way to the gallows, full of remorse. Though she didn't speak, Natsu had filled me in on everything that had been going on. Apparently she was part of a super rich family or something and had run away from home. Her father had started the war and wanted her to return home. It wasn't very fair, but it wasn't her decision to return home anymore. The threat of her father hiring another guild to harm us again was too great, so in that sense, I was all for her returning home if it meant that the members of our guild would have harm brought to them any longer. As sad as it was, it was for the best, and for the good of everyone else.

... though, this didn't mean the end of Fairy Tail's Lucy.

It turns out that Lucy really did return home a few days after everyone returned, but when Natsu and the others brought me along with them to go try to convince Lucy, we found her standing out in front of a tombstone. Apparently she'd made up with good ol' dad, threatening him to stay away from Fairy Tail. As he should. The amount of relief was overwhelming in power, and tears were shed, needless to say (except mine, though I tried to fight it sometimes). This only meant that Lucy was here at Fairy Tail, and here to stay.

Meanwhile at the guild, I joined in with everyone to rebuild the guild. It appeared that it was going to be much larger than before. It turns out that Mira drew up the designs to the new guild, but I had to smack Gray in the head when he caused Mira to burst out in tears by calling her an idiot for drawing something so "terrible". Granted, he didn't know, but... er, I... uh, blame it on reflex. It wasn't actually a bad drawing, and I'm not just throwing words around. I realized that I actually knocked Gray unconscious, because I smacked him with my metal hand. Well, didn't really matter to me as I tried to repair the damage by encouraging Mira's drawing.

Construction of the new guild was going rather quickly, and the new guild began to take shape after a few weeks. I don't want to boast and say that I did the most work, because everyone did their part. In that sense, I did my part as well. And lemme tell you, lifting one, giant wooden beam by itself on my shoulder wasn't easy as it was, but then carrying three became a problem. Five? Forget about it. At least Natsu could lift it over his head, but he couldn't carry it successfully. I could barely lift it. To make up for this, I continued to do curls at home, even going to the point where I benched freaking trees in the forest. To this I added two, then started using heavier stuff. Being built out of metal, it wouldn't be so easy to break or crack one of my bones, but the heavier I lifted, the more pressure and strain was on my body. My muscles definitely got a workout every time, but soon I had to take a break to heal. At one point I tried lifting an enormous boulder, but being the dim-witted idiot I was, I was standing downhill when trying to lift it and of course it was too heavy and rolled downhill. I wasn't flattened or completely obliterated, but I could tell that I had broken my metal arm, as I couldn't move it, and it dangled at my side like a fish on a line. Well, I never said I was indestructible. The boulder ended up smashing into and felling a bunch of trees in the forest below, and I took that as a sign to take a rest. The very next day, however, I had regained feeling in my arm and was actually able to move it. Granted it was still painful to move, an indication that it hadn't fully healed, but I was honestly amazed at how quickly it could heal. The Steel Arts work in curious ways, huh?

A week and a half after the reconstruction of the guild was in full motion, a temporary bar was set up, as with the request board, which I was super hyped for. It'd been a while since my last request, and I was beginning to grow anxious with all the shenanigans that'd been happening. Although, that day sprouted a bit of problems...

Makarov was away at the Council on a trial that day, and Mira had just announced that the request board had opened up again. More invigorated than ever, I ran right to the request board right away and looked for a request immediately. As usual, I wanted to get a high paying request, preferably a monster slaying quest, just the usual thing. Though some people had beaten me to the board, I was still able to find what I was looking for. It seemed to be a monster hunting request to slay a large group of beasts invading the grounds of a prosperous mansion. If it was a large group of monsters, then it wasn't going to be easy, especially if they were all spread out around the mansion and began ganging up on me, but I needed a good request to challenge me. Request paper in hand, began to head out, but then a sharp pain stabbed at my muscles, causing a great ache. I figured it'd be best to sit down and take a rest. Lucy also sat at the bar, talking to Mira.

"Ugh... thinking about it makes my butt hurt again..." groaned Lucy.

"What does?" Lucy jumped.

"Vincent! You startled me... don't just butt into conversations like that!"

"Oh, right. Heh, sorry," I muttered sheepishly. "What happened though?"

"I dropped my keys, and I hate to think of how my Celestial Spirits would react...! Though I have to thank Loki for getting them back for me. He wasn't around, though I wanted to ask him in person."

"Loki...? Oh, you mean that handsome playboy? Yeah, although I'm not into dudes, he does have the looks... It's not a surprise that someone as good-looking as him would make all the girls scream."

"Yeah... er, I mean, yeah, he is a handsome dude, don't get me wrong. It's not like I'm not into- er, I mean, it's not like I'm into him or anything."

"Woah, you had me going there for a sec. I was about to say-"

"Lucy's in LOOOOOOOVE!~" teased Happy from out of nowhere, startling both Lucy and I, and effectively finishing my thought.

"Rather loud, I'd say. Well, that's Fairy Tail, I guess," I muttered.

"I'd appreciate if you didn't eavesdrop, thank you very much!" cried Lucy.

"Lucy's in love? Why didn't ya tell us?" said Natsu out of nowhere as well.

"I'm not! Can't a girl around here simply recognize that a guy is handsome?" protested Lucy.

Mira and I only laughed at the whole thing. However, our laughter died out quickly thanks to a certain someone. From behind us, a barrel flew out of nowhere and hit me in the back of the head. I didn't care who threw it, except for who I swore better not have thrown it. Then came a familiar, sadistic voice.

"Just like Mr. punk ass over there. People like him would be out of this guild in a heartbeat if I were the guild master."

All I had to do was hear the voice and grow angry. First a barrel, which didn't hurt, but was nevertheless humiliating, then called a name, followed by a threat. Instantly, I stopped all that I was doing at the moment and slowly raised my head in greatly suppressed anger.

"Oh, looky here! Looks like I tripped a nerve didn't I? Oh, there he is, Fairy Tail's anger issues! What, you gonna cry because I hit you in the back of the head? If I were this guild's master, I'd make you deal with it," came Laxus's cruel words.

"Vincent. Calm down. Don't do anything dumb. He isn't worth it," muttered Mirajane to me.

"No, even better, you wouldn't even be here, because you're weak," continued Laxus. "Only the strongest are allowed in Fairy Tail. It's a place for adults, not kids like you."

I violently rose up, kicking over the stool in the process, and whipped around to face Laxus. He wouldn't get away with this. He would pay for humiliating me.

"Oh, looks like I struck a vital nerve! I'm so... not sorry! What? You got something to say? C'mere and say it!" I continued to march towards Laxus as he continued to taunt me. However, Erza stepped in the way.

"Vincent. Don't. Stay away from him," urged Erza as she stuck out her hand to stop me.

"Oh, and let's not forget the damsel in distress who started the whole thing, over there. It's your fault that this whole guild lies in ruins, isn't it?"

"Laxus! That's enough!" shouted Mira.

"Is it ever, though? No, I won't let up. Not until my Fairy Tail stands as a guild that will never be looked down upon by any other guild. Oh, but don't worry, Mira. I won't kick you from the guild, after all, I still need a mate who can run the guild with me, right?" At this, everyone gasped, knowing my relationship with Mira.

The absolute fuck did he just utter? I thought.

"Erza, move out of the way, please."

"Vincent, stop playing the tough role! Just let it go!"

"I'm not playing any role. Please move aside, kindly, so I can kill Laxus."

"You will not kill any-"

"Yeah? TRY ME!" I yelled. It hadn't occurred to me that I just raised my voice at Erza Scarlet, because I was too angry to care about anything.

"Oh, you'll kill who? Care to say it again, little punk ass?"

I was still sore, but too angry to care. Instantly, I evolved right into my Giga Evolution, towering over Laxus and everyone else.

"Vincent! Stop this right now! Otherwise I will have to use force!" Erza shouted, Requipping into a large armor set. Seeing nothing good coming about this, and also considering that all of our hard work would be torn down instantly by my rash actions, I decided against anger and suppressed it, Devolving back into my normal form. As I did, I shot a menacing glance at Laxus, who had a big, nasty grin on his face.

"That's what I thought, punk ass. Thinking you're so tough when you're not. You're nothing but a copy of gramps, basically, after seeing that. In fact, you're just another copy in general, among infinite and alternate universes of overpowered heroes with perfect attributes, love to break it to ya, you're just another copy! And that's all you'll ever be."

"And who made you the omnipresent ruler of the universe?"

"Nobody made me. I just am. And you're not. That's all that matters. I'm a part of Fairy Tail. You are not. You don't belong here. You never did. You-"

"LAXUS!" yelled Natsu from out of nowhere. Talk about bad timing! "I'm gonna kill you for insulting him!" Natsu threw a punch at Laxus, but he turned into lightning and teleported behind him.

"I want a proper fight!" shouted Natsu.

"Haha, that's funny. How can you fight me if you can't even hit me? I'm out, losers. Have fun hitting nothing." With that, Laxus turned into lightning and flew away.

"That dick... why is he like... well, rather, it's not a question of why, because I could care less, but more importantly, how to get him back..." I angrily muttered.

"Vincent. You needn't worry about him. He only wants what's best for our guild," said Erza.

"Hmph! As if. Like hell he wants the best for our guild. He only wants power. As clearly evidenced, he doesn't care about the guild. Sure he wants the name of Fairy Tail to be feared, but when you get down to it, Fairy Tail isn't just some name or building," I said, looking around at everyone. "Fairy Tail is a people, us."

"Yeah! Man! That's a man, realizing the importance of the people!" yelled Elfman.

"Well... yeah." A large cheer had gone up in the crowd of people, lifting my spirits a bit. I had nothing else to say, so I decided to head out.

"Yo! Vinny!" called Natsu.

"What's up?"

"We were going out to complete a quest, Erza, Lucy, me, Happy, and Gray! We made a team!"

"I thought the team was already a thing."

"Exactly what I said!" added Mira.

"Fairy Tail's strongest team is official now, but it wouldn't be complete without one of the strongest in Fairy Tail!"

"Who, Loki? Elfman?"

"Vinny, take a wild guess. It's you! You're one of Fairy Tail's strongest!"

I knew I was gaining strength, but it couldn't have been that quickly. There was no way. Maybe Laxus was right, in that I was just another one of those heroes. "What do you mean?"

"Remember when I fought you? Yeah, that time when I totally creamed you!"

"Oh god. Don't remind me..."

"But despite that, you were actually really good! And to top it off, you still had the strength to stand!"

"I think you may be mistaken-"

"I'm not. You really have guts, man. You have guts of steel. And ever since that fight, you've gotten totally stronger!"

"Really? Have I? But there was that fight with Sol and Jose, and I pretty much lost both, and I nearly died to a bunch other lowly guild members... that means that I'm not strong enough! Don't you get it?"

"Shut up!" yelled Natsu, shocking me. "That's because you were going against the Loser 4 and Josh or whatever. Forget the others you fought. Sunny and Josie are at Ezra's and Makarov's level, and that can be understood. I also heard you took on Gajeel, but don't worry, I finished him off for you. He also told me to tell you... uh, what was it? Oh yeah, he told me to tell you that he had nothing to do with your father."

"Of all the people I would've suspected, one of the highest on my list wasn't... ah, never mind. I judged before I knew anything. And Jose..."

"It's alright, Vincent. Makarov already took care of him, and Jose received justice," said Erza. "Unfortunately, so did the master..."

"So whaddya say, Vin? Wanna be a part of Fairy Tail's strongest team?"

I felt a slight twinge of guilt, as if all the clichés in all of the universes parallel to this one were summed up by my action. "I accept your offer, but please take into consideration that sometimes I will quest solo."

"That's alright, cuz I know that you like to do monster hunting requests only."

"Not only that, but I've built up a streak since I began, and I don't wanna break it. Please excuse me for that. If you guys are going on a request now, please also excuse me for not joining you. I have a lot of training to do."

"You are excused," said Erza. "We will pick up monster hunting quests more frequently if you'd like."

"What...? You'll do that for me? Really?"

"Yeah, man!" insisted Natsu. "We'll even give you half of the reward when it's over!"

"That's overly generous of you, but I don't think that's how it works..."

"Ah, I knew that, but I was just testing you. Eh, sorta."

"I wonder if you really were...? Well anyway, thanks for including me in your team. Now, please excuse me, as I have training to do."

xxxx

"Augh!" I groaned as I flew back and slammed into a tree, blood leaking from my mouth. "Urg... I should be smarter about my... Magic Energy... use...!" I threw a Mega Flame Ball at a group of monsters that began advancing on me. From behind me, a towering goblin-type creature raised its fist, but I blocked with my arms and cloaked myself on flames with Fire Shield and followed it up with a Titanium Fist, blasting the goblin creature away just in time for me to dodge another monster behind me with many large horns that swung a large tree branch at me.

"Hope you demon-spawns like barbecue, because that's what you'll all become in a few seconds." Extending my arms straight out to my sides, I formed two Fire Wheels around my forearms and released it, which miraculously dodged the trees, hitting a ton of monsters and dissipating normally. Although the request required me to not fell any trees whether intentional or not, (otherwise it would be taken out of my pay) a clearing had been created, big enough for me to use Magma Core.

"You guys ever wonder what happens to all the garbage in the world? Oh yeah, of course you don't! You're all dumb fucking monsters! Well I'll show you what happens to garbage." Unleashing the attack around hopefully the last group of monsters, I sat back to hear their tortured roars and cries as they were all slowly incinerated to death. As I began to head to the mansion to claim my award, I felt something smack me in the back, hard, sending me flying into the clearing. When I turned around, I realized that this towering monster was the leader of them all. It was a colossal beast, menacing and potent, a real challenge to be taken down.

I grinned and rushed forward.

xxxx

Brusied, bloodied and battered, I made my way back to my house in Magnolia and cleaned up before I headed back to the guild. With more Magic Energy and 20,000 Jewel in my pocket (was originally 50,000, but deducted due to felled trees), I began to head back to Fairy Tail, but then a brisk, evening autumn breeze chilled my skin, reminding me of the fact that I no longer had a coat. I had to get a new one.

Although, when I visited a clothing store nearby, I was unable to find anything that I hadn't previously worn, and also fitted my taste, or anything I was looking for. But the question was, what _was_ I looking for? I decided to walk to the guild with only a zip-up hoodie that I found in my Dimension Space. It was still cold, but the jacket was better than nothing.

Out of habit, I was half expecting the guild to be there when I returned, but construction was still in progress. No one was really there, it seemed, until I heard a voice cry out loud, "I will never quit being Master!" This was Makarov's voice, obviously, but he was probably getting drunk. I couldn't see him, but I could see Mira.

"What the hell was that...?" I questioned.

"Oh! Vincent, you scared me. What was that? That was Master, because he's upset."

"Upset at wh-" Mira finished my sentence by showing me a stack of documents.

"What's this? Oh... something about Makarov... the Council... uh huh... wait, WHAT?! So, I can only assume the ones responsible are Natsu and the team, and they demolished half a city?! What were they thinking? Thousands must've died! And they're so careless... so... RRGH! Idiots! I'm an idiot too! What was I thinking, joining their team? If they get into even more trouble and I'm with them, then I'll be to blame as well, even if I didn't do anything! God! Natsu, Gray, Erza, and Lucy- er, actually, I don't think Lucy would do anything like this, but the rest of them! Idiots! How could they do such a thing?! They..." And so I continued rambling like an idiot, even while taking up another request, and returned home. As I lay on my bed that night, I reflected upon all that had happened in the crazy year and a half that I'd been at Fairy Tail. Yes, it had been a year and a half already; I just describe things rather concisely.

Although I knew I had gotten myself into a lotta shit, I didn't regret anything. I didn't regret joining Fairy Tail, or setting out to avenge Dad, or even killing anyone who stood in my way. Er, actually, now that I think about it, I do kind of regret it... wait, no I don't. They still deserved what they got.

As I fell asleep feeling slightly warmer than usual, I pondered not on what I had gotten myself into, but what would be in store for me going forward.


	48. Chapter 48: The Fever

**Author's Note: Funny thing, I'm actually coming down with something as I'm writing this chapter. I mean, it's not a fever, but rather a cold, but nevertheless coincidental... oh, right. The story.**

* * *

I'm sure that my body temperature is always higher than most, however, I don't usually feel any warmer. But when I do, that's usually a sign that I'm coming down with something. One of the most uncomfortable feelings in the world has to be a fever. Except when I get it, my body heat shuts down, I'm constantly cold and clammy, and I become so weak that I can barely stand. I hadn't been sick since I was a kid, but I was soon reacquainted with the feeling.

And now it was worse than ever.

Sneezing endlessly made me cranky enough, but then came the feeling of slowness and soreness, with every movement I made, and let's not even mention the vomiting. God no.

 _It couldn't have been something I ate_ , I pondered. _Well, not that I really ate much of anything. Or maybe that might be it; malnutrition? That means I need to eat something- oof..._ My stomach suddenly churned, eliminating any feeling of hunger. It seemed I wouldn't be eating anything anytime soon. I didn't leave my house all day, either.

The only thing I needed was sleep and water. I was too sore and nauseous to travel back home, so I resorted to remaining in bed all day to get some sleep. Of course, I felt like I was being robbed of time that could be used to slay some monsters, as it had become a bit of an obsession now, but there was nothing I could do. I silently cursed my Book of Magic for not having any Self-healing Magic as I trudged slowly to the bathroom to throw up again, then crawled back to my bedroom to sleep.

xxxx

Opening my eyes, I awoke on the summit of a familiar, bleak mountain once again, but no fire was to be seen this time. Instead, the usual shadowy figure of Elementia stared me down, with a terrible glaring grin penetrating my soul.

"Rise, o 'chosen one'," he mocked, revealing scabbard with a sword. However, unsheathing the sword, it could be seen that the sword had no blade at all, only a handle and crossguard with some kind of orb in the center of the hilt. the cross guard curved upward to create two pyramid-shaped sikes on each end, with a similar design in the pommel of the broken sword. Or, so it was thought to be broken. Elementia pointed the bladeless sword at me, causing the orb in the center to glow red, expelling a burst of flames from within the hilt and thus forming the blade from fire energy. The blade extended towards my face, barely cutting my cheek.

"I believe I commanded you to rise! Now, _rise!_ " Shoving the blade into the space between my ribs and puncturing my lungs, he rose the sword upward, forcing me to my feet. Needless to say, the sharp pain of the sword slicing through my skin and muscle, clear through my right lung and out the opposite side burned, and not from the temperature of the glowing hot blade, created from solid flames. Combined with the moment Elementia drew his sword as if my chest were a pedestal, the frigid high altitude wind blew around razor bladed flakes, burning my wound further still. Though the piercing sting was painful, I dared not collapse in fear of another stab wound.

"Good... now, draw your sword. And let fall the facade of ignorance, for you know perfectly what I mean." As if he could read my mind, Elementia slashed away at my sudden confusion, forgetful on my part that I wielded a flaming sword just as he did; one that could be created by my will, thus I proceeded to form Flare Sword in my hand. Elementia held out his sword towards me, and I crossed blades with him, swinging towards him first, but he blocked the incoming swing and countered with a downward swing, knocking the sword out of my hand, causing it to dissipate. And before I was able to regenerate my sword, he charged right in and went straight for my neck...

Right at that moment, I woke up, with sweat pouring down my forehead and heart pounding quicker than a motor. I tried sitting up but felt even weaker than I had before, unable to do anything but lie there on my bed, sick and exhausted. For about an hour I lay, lost in my own thoughts and thinking about the dream that had just occurred. No doubt it was another way for Elementia to discover my weaknesses (which I had realized previously), but for me, it made me realize what needed improvement. From that bout, I realized that I had no experience in swordsmanship. Well, to be honest, I didn't have much experience in anything. Not even fighting. I mean, sure, I fought monsters and other mages, but more often than not, I'd escape with many scars and other injuries. The three claw marks on my chest from the very first quest I had taken on had long since healed but left ugly scars. On my arm where still remained skin, the back of my forearm also held another long-since-healed scar from some battle long ago, among others; those which I had forgotten, along with the cause of the scars.

I knew not the time of day, but after what seemed like hours laying sickly in bed, a knock came from the front door, startling me awake. After failing to get up the first time, the knocking came again shortly in bursts of three. This made me try a bit harder to stand, and after continuing a third time, I forced myself up on my feet, and slowly shuffled towards the door, which issued another three knocks. Halfway to the door, I responded loud enough in a surprisingly raspy voice, "I'm comin', I'm comin'..." followed by the most terrible cough I had ever released. Once at the door, I weakly reached for the lock, failing twice before my hand actually landed on it and struggled to turn it, as the trip to the door deprived me of most of my energy.

"Mmf... door's open..." I mumbled, just barely loud enough for the person on the other side to hear. When the door swung open, I saw Mirajane standing in the doorway, holding a few bags.

"Oh my goodness... Vincent, you're a mess! Are you alright?" she exclaimed.

"Never been better..." I muttered, not taking into account how she knew I was sick, let alone the location of my house.

"You certainly don't look better... or sound it," Mira sighed.

"Come on in," I managed to say, as she stepped through the doorway, closing the door behind her. I awkwardly shuffled over to a chair at the table and sat down, completely drained. But I still managed to make out words.

"So how... how'd you know where to find me...?"

"We came by your house one day, don't you remember?"

"... oh yeah," I replied, although it didn't ring a bell.

"Yeah, on our first date, remember? You told me this was your house."

Now I was starting to remember. "I did, didn't I... well, how'd you know that I was sick?"

"Well, you haven't been to the guild recently. And I mean in the past three days. That wasn't like you, so I knew something had to be wrong. Maybe you were depressed, or went home just like Lucy, or something. I just wanted you to be alright."

"Well... thanks for caring about me, at least."

"I could understand if you were training, in which you could've missed a day, but even then you'd still visit the guild often enough."

"You know me pretty well, don't you..."

Though I couldn't come into contact with her, Mira still managed to take care of me. It turns out the bags she had brought were things to make dinner for us, but she ended up making me a soup instead. The rest of the night she stayed with me, and talked to me, just to keep me company.

"So that's why... that's why you're doing all this? Not because you want to surpass Erza or Master, but because of your father? Wait, I thought you said he died," said Mirajane.

"He did, that's correct," I replied.

"Then, if he died shortly after you were born, how would you know what he was like? If you had no time to bond with him?"

"Well... my mom used to tell me stories of a legendary dragon, the days before she lied to me, saying that they were all stories. She told me a tale of long ago when all of the land was protected by the Legion. And my father, being the head of the Legion at the time, was the strongest leader yet, far stronger to any other leader in the past. It was because he worked the hardest to achieve a special form because he kept his eyes on the future.

"But then the Legion began to fall after the appearance of an evil organization. This was around the time that he met my mother. Now, I know he was old, but because he was a Charizard, his lifespan was much longer than that of a human, so in Charizard years, he would've been in his late forties when he met my mother. Though, he had been around much longer than that, even back to the late 18XX's."

"18XX's...?" Mira was confused.

"Oh, do you guys use a different calendar over here?"

"Yes, the years usually go in X000's. The double digits count how many decades have passed, so X010 would be one decade. But I assume it works differently in yours?"

"Well, it counts by every hundred years. Starting out would be X. After a hundred years, it would be 1XX, and then the next hundred would be 2XX, and so on. And so far, we are in the 20XX's. I was born right around the turn of 20XX. And based on my genetics, I might live until 23XX, but I don't know. It's quite a long time when you think about it. I could be hundreds of years old in human years."

But thinking back on it, it was probably cut in half due to my dominant human genes. Though most dragons today have been living since ancient times, as in 400 B.C. (Before Chaos) I would go into the history behind it, but it's all uninteresting evolutionary stuff.

xxxx

Luckily, I didn't have another Elementia nightmare when I went to sleep that night. I woke up in a puddle of drool, however, and remembered that I had spent the previous night with Mira, but had fallen asleep while listening to her. A blanket slid onto the floor as I sat up, probably put on my back by Mirajane. How thoughtful.

This morning I was able to stand up, so I had clearly gotten better, but not fully. I was at least able to walk properly, and not topple over like a fool when doing so.

"Hnnnnnn...!" I was able to stretch out my limbs, and let out a satisfied yawn. "Feelin' better! Not great, but definitely better... much better! I feel like going to the guild today!" And that was what I did.

I began walking, not running, to the guild that rose up over the town, slowly but surely, day by day as it was continuously reconstructed. Straight down the way from it was the church that I turned at regularly to walk straight down to the guild. As I walked past, however, I thought I saw something in the corner of my eye, something from in the doorway of the church. But as I turned to look, nothing was there. At first, I thought of it to be my peripherals messing with me, but as I turned around again, it reappeared. I couldn't make out what it was, but it appeared to be a dark figure, surrounded by red. But every time I tried to look at it, it disappeared. It was freaky, and I didn't like it one bit, and this caused me to walk along at a rather quick pace, further away from the church.

The construction of the guild was almost complete, it seemed. At least the outer shell had been built, and the interior was still in the process. A lot of people were still hard at work, which sort of bothered me. What bothered me was that I wasn't able to pitch in, standing idly by as construction was underway, as if I were just a stick in the mud, a nuisance in the way.

"Hey, Vin!" Elfman exclaimed. "Deciding to show up, even if you're sick! That's definitely a man!"

"Ah, me? I'm not that manly..."

"Hmph! Humility is at least manly as well! If you're not humble, then what does that make you?"

Though the question was clearly rhetorical, I found it rather humorous to respond, "Er, not... a man...?"

Elfman just laughed and said, "Take it easy, big man."

Naturally, I found my way over to the bar where Mira was. On the way there, some other guild members noticed me and acknowledged my presence. "Hey, Vincent. Feel better," said one member. "Hey, heard you were sick. Get better," said another. "Get better, Vincent, you can do it!" enthused a younger member. It was small but encouraging nonetheless. I hadn't thought that anyone knew I was there, let alone cared for my well being.

I considered myself... lucky...? for the position I was in. Or, maybe not lucky... the words that Laxus uttered the other day still stuck with me. Thousands of overpowered characters with near-perfect attributes? Well for one thing, I certainly didn't have good looks, but I wasn't entirely ugly. That which is debatable. And I certainly wasn't overpowered/invulnerable, nor did I have "near-perfect" attributes. Maybe my goal of avenging my father was a bit overused, but at the time it was all I had to go off of. It wasn't my fault I was put under these conditions, born with these powers. As I sat down, I felt something shift as I began to rethink all of my actions, and everything that led me here. Was everything according to some unknown plan, or entirely coincidental? And if being the latter, what were the odds?

For the very first time, I could see it. Alternate universes with tons of different heroes just like me. Had a similar backstory, just like me. Similar or same powers, similar attire, similar attributes and personality, similar odds, same motives, same timeline, same plot, and same events up to this point. It upset me quite a lot, knowing that I really was just another copy. But then I saw a dreadful, most terrible sight. I didn't exactly know for sure if what I was seeing was real, but from the present going forward, the only thing I could see... was hell. All was chaos and death. I knew not if it was my doing or not, but it was majorly unsettling and caused me to entirely rethink my decisions. Not instantaneously, as I had been thinking about this for a while, but this was the turning point. From this, a new, nagging question entered my mind and continued to bug me every time I did anything, from that point on. The question-

"Vincent! Vincent, wake up! Hello, earth to Vincent!" I felt a tap on my shoulder and snapped upwards.

"Gah...! I'm up! I'm up! I'm awake! What happened!" I exclaimed.

"You looked as if you were delving into a deep depression, or contemplating the meaning or something! You scared me..." I stared at Mira like an idiot, wondering if she was part of the "plan" as well. What was the "plan", though? My head began to spin as I thought harder and harder about it.

"Oh... did I...?" I mumbled, absentmindedly. "Sorry, I'm probably just thinking too hard about... ah, never mind."

"Wait, tell me! If it's something that's clouding your thoughts, maybe I could help you...?"

"I doubt it's something you can help with because you belong here. And the fact of the matter is, I don't. I don't really belong anywhere except home... but you wouldn't know what that's like, because you grew up here. You belong here, along with everyone else. Even though Lucy is as new as I am, I can't help but feel like she's the one that belongs..." I stared off into space while I spoke, ever contemplating the life I led.

"Oh... I don't... really know..."

"That's alright. You all keep me company, that at the very least. But there will come a day when I'll leave all of this behind and seek anew, to seek my place, wherever that may be."

"Hey, now. It's best not to think about what's to become, and focus on what is happening right now. Y'know, to savor these moments or something...?"

I felt a twinge of sadness and happiness, making me feel just a bit better. "You're so kind. So... personable. I just wish I could know..."

"Know what?"

"To know... well, to know when I'll ever-"

"YO! Vin!" came Natsu's yell. He slapped a hand down on my shoulder. I felt like crying but wasn't about to. Not in front of everyone. And knowing Natsu, he'd probably never forgive himself.

"What's... going on...?" I squeezed out.

"We were gonna invite you to... hey, what's wrong? You look as depressed as Gray."

"Huh?! Who're you callin' depressed, Mr. ADHD?"

"Who're you callin' ADHD, walking freezer?"

"What's that make you then, walking tiki torch? Your flames couldn't burn a dry leaf if you tried!"

"You couldn't freeze a glass of water that already has ice in it, below zero!"

"Yeah, but I think some of those brain cells are still frozen from when I fought you last, dunce!"

"Hey, now. It's too early for this. I'm still sick and I'm really not feeling up to both your antics. If you were gonna tell me something, tell, otherwise take that crap elsewhere."

"I was gonna ask you before Gray interrupted me-"

"Well, you called me depressed, and I'm just standing here, minding my own business."

"No, you're standing there, being a big headed douchebag!"

"Who's a douchebag?"

Erza stepped forward, hitting the tops of their heads. "Both of you are. What we want to ask you, that these two are clearly failing to get across, is that we have some free time, so we were thinking about taking a break to go to a hot spring. Gray had the idea to invite you along, and we thought that it would be a good idea if you came along." _A hot spring, huh?_ I thought. I remember passing by one in Lavaridge in Hoenn but didn't have the time to visit. I began to regret always being too busy training to even think about taking a break. But now was an opportunity, so considering my circumstances, I replied, "Yeah, sure. I got nothing going on."

"Oh yeah, that's right. We all wanted to wish you good health because we heard you were sick. I do hope you get better soon."

Natsu and Gray rose up with lumps on their heads. "Get well. We kinda need you on our team," said Gray rather passively.

"Get better Vin!" exclaimed Natsu with a big, strong smile. "The team just isn't complete without you!"

Now, the words of Laxus and all the toxic thoughts that followed still remained in my head, but with all the encouragement, I was prevented from going down a much darker path than I originally planned. For once, even if it was just for a moment, I felt like I fit in, somehow.

"Thank you... thank you guys so much... I really mean that." I felt like crying, but I didn't wanna cry in front of everyone. I had to be strong. I had to be strong for myself, for my father, my mother. So I didn't cry. "When... er, when are we going?"

"I figured we could go later tonight. Lucy will meet us there," said Erza.

"Speaking of, where is she? I thought she went with you guys."

"She went home to relax. It's been pretty hectic for her, and she's been having a bit of trouble keeping up."

"Her too? I sincerely hope she doesn't get sick like me. Well anyway, I guess I'll see you guys later? Er... where the hell do we meet?"

"We're meeting in Hosenka Town, west of Magnolia. Be there at 8:30."

"Right!" With that, they left.

"Hosenka, huh? Ah... sounds like fun," sighed Mira.

"Yeah. Never been to a hot spring, but sounds like a lot of fun." I realized the note of longing in Mira's voice and added, "Hey, you could come with us! Well, if you're free later tonight."

"Well, I'm usually done around 9:00, but maybe I can leave a bit earlier to join you. I'd love to go."

"Well, I'll come around 8:00, if I'm able to. I may as well sleep the whole day, though. The more I sleep, the quicker this fever will go away."

"It has gone down quite a bit, hasn't it?"

"Yeah, and even if it doesn't go down anymore, I'll be alright. I gotta be strong. And on that note, I'm gonna go home."

"Well, get better. I'll see you later tonight."

xxxx

"... weakling... you weakling...! You'll never be able to come close to even a fraction of my power...! Die, 'Descendant'!"

"Ah!" Once again, I was startled awake from yet another nightmare, dripping sweat profusely, heart pounding a thousand miles a minute. I cared not for the Elementia nightmare I had just had and instead checked the time to get my mind off of it. 7:43. I didn't feel any better than I had earlier that day but didn't feel worse, at the very least.

I had some time before I was to get Mira, so to prevent myself from getting sick any further, I thought it to be a good idea to look for a better jacket than the one I already had. Because my body heat was still conked out, I needed something to keep me warm for the time being, something heavier than my zip-up hoodie. Just like the previous time, finding nothing of my style, I had to leave for the guild with only my hoodie.

The guild was pitch black except for a little lantern lighting up the bar. Mira was nowhere to be seen, but as I stepped closer, I felt two hands on my shoulders and heard Mira shout, "Bah!", scaring the shit out of me. I nearly smacked her, but only because I didn't realize it was her st first. Now I know, you're probably thinking, if she was the only one in the guild, how could it be anyone else? Well, it could've been! You never know what to expect anymore.

"Jeez! You scared the shit outta me! I think I'm gonna piss my pants after that!" I shouted.

"Hehe... did I scare you?"

"Yeah, you did...!"

"Aw... I'm sorry, you poor thing... sorry if I scared you out of your skin."

"It's fine. It's whatever," I said, slightly annoyed. Suddenly, I felt her hands on my arm, making me jump again.

"Oh... I really did scare you, didn't I? Poor baby..."

"Hey, I'm not a baby!"

"You're mine, at least." After seeing her cute face in the lamplight as she said that, it was impossible to act annoyed. I sighed and gave her a kiss on the lips.

"Shall we go then?"

"Yes, let's."

xxxx

It got pretty dark as we walked along, but by lighting a Flame Ball in my hand, not only did it light our path (and surroundings within a 15 foot radius) but it kept us warm as we made our way to Hosenka Town. I protected Mira with my life, keeping her close to me and defeating anything that tried to attack us. And trust me, there were most definitely creatures that tried to attack us. Not a whole lot, but easy enough to take down with a few attacks.

The lights of Hosenka were distant, drawing nearer as we hurried along. It was almost 8:30, and I dreaded what Erza would do if I was late. Hopefully nothing too harsh, since Mira was also with me.

Luckily, we made it in time, but then it dawned upon me that I didn't know _where_ Erza said to meet. Though the town was small, we began rushing around what seemed a whole city, calling out for Natsu and the others.

"Where are we running to?" panted Mira, tired from running.

"We're trying to find out where-" I began, but then we rounded a corner and found Erza and the others standing there, waiting for us. Turns out that they were waiting in from of the inn the whole time. Erza had a rather serious look, sending a chill down my spine.

"You're two minutes late. Another minute and we would've left you running around like a fool."

"I'm sorry, Erza, but it's just that, you never told me where we'd be meeting."

"Is that so? Then forgive me for my mistake. Oh...?" She glanced over at Mira. "You've decided to bring her along as well?"

"Ah. Well, y'see, er, about that, uh..." I stopped because Erza raised her hand, for what seemed like an incoming smack, but it only turned out to be her thumb, accepting my choice.

"That's not a problem. Well then, shall we head on in?"

Walking into the bathhouse, we were met with a relaxing, warm aura. The bath itself was split into two rooms, the men's side on the left and the women's on the right. Erza, Lucy, and Mira disappeared into the right side, and Natsu, Gray, and I (and Happy) went into our respective side. Gray was naturally, well, _al naturale_ , and so was Happy. Natsu and I remained the only ones who had anything to take off, and proceeding to do so amidst the steam, I stepped down into the bath, immediately relaxed by the soothing water.

"Ahhhhhh... if there's anything to rid me of my fever, this is it..." I sighed, neck deep in the hot water.

"Jeez Vin! You made the water so hot that I can barely dip my toe in! Look, it's basically a boiling pot now!" shouted Gray. He was right, for the water around me within a moderate radius had begun to boil.

"Look, man. The water on that side is fine, so why not go over there?" I suggested.

"Ahhhhhh... the water was lukewarm until now...!" sighed Natsu. "Jeez Gray, you're the only one not enjoying it, ya block of ice!"

"Yeah? Come over here and I'll make you eat those words!"

"I will, as a matter of fact! You're asking for a Fire Dragon Fist to the face, buddy!"

"Buddy, I'll freeze your dick off before you can do anything!"

"I'll burn yours off faster than you can say "Ice-Make!"

"Hey. I'll boil both of yours off if you two don't shut it. Think about coming at me with something smart and I'll turn the heat up so much that you'll be cooked into a soup. And it won't taste good," I growled, upsetting even Happy who, like Natsu, only thought about food.

"Tch. Okay, Mr. Boiler," said Gray, backing away slowly.

"Says King Cold over there, on the other side of the room."

"That's because I'm done in the bath!"

"You were only in it for five seconds."

Afterwards, we paid for the bath and a room large enough for all of us to share. Then Gray, Natsu and Erza started a pillow fight, in which Lucy was an easy target, getting knocked out right away. I did my best to distance myself from them, in which I met Mira on the other side of the room.

"Hey, it's getting pretty hectic in here. Wanna go with-" I was cut off midsentence, hit with a heavy pillow in the back of the head. I stopped, then bent down to pick it up. Turning around, Natsu looked everywhere else, trying his best to apoear innocent. With a mighty slug, I threw the pillow directly at his face, knocking him down.

"Jeez! You almost hit Mira, you fiery dolt! Watch it!" I yelled. "C'mon, Mira. Let's go for a drink, which was what I was gonna ask."

"Sure," she replied as we walked out.

I made sure that Mira didn't drink too much, as I had to watch my intake as well. Even after a few shots of sakè, Mira appeared to be turning red, and based on the fact that I was feeling a little woozy as well, I was thinking that she may feel the same. Okay, maybe we had a little more than a few shots, but not too much. I think...

"I'm feeling a little... warm, aren't you?" I said.

"Uh oh, we did it, didn't we? Are we getting drunk?" said Mira worriedly.

"Well, let's go tell the others we wanna go home while we still have a sense of reality." I waved my hands in front of my face. "It just kinda seems like a long ways away. Let's head back, okay?"

I vaguely remember telling the others that Mira and I were returning home, despite them telling me the next day. But for some reason I remember more of what happened next, maybe because it stuck in my mind more strongly. With the alcohol setting in, my drunk self began making not so good decisions, but even so, it would've been the best option than walking home at night.

"Mira... we can't walk home, we might fall asleep..."

"I guess... but how're we gonna get there...?" she yawned.

"I have a way. I can shift space, like _bloop!_ " To this, Mira began cracking up. "Here, hold on to me, silly." With her in my arm, I held on tightly, ready to Dimension Shift. But the alcohol still had its side effects...

As I tried to teleport back to my house, it didn't work the first few times I tried it, but then the circle below our feet began to glow and spark, then dropped us through rather aggressively.

And where we ended up wasn't my house.


	49. Chapter 49: The Duel

Dropping through the glitchy portal, Mira landing on top of me, I immediately recognized the snowy summit field, the gray and bleak howling blizzard, and the strange fluctuations of energy. Even if slightly drunk, I knew we had to get out of there.

"Mira. Grab my hand. We have to get out of here right now." I said this in such a serious tone that she knew right away that we were somewhere dangerous. But when trying to Switch, all times I tried located us elsewhere on the field, as if the energy field were preventing us from escaping. There were various rocks scattered around the field, and teleporting behind one, I was about to teleport once more, but then Elementia had appeared from the blizzard.

"You can't hide forever, Legend. I know you're there. All this time I've been able to contact you through your dreams..." I swear, I could _hear_ him grin. "... but now I get to kill you for real. I've been looking forward to this. As long as you continue to teleport away like the little coward you are, you'll continue to be teleported here."

Suddenly, it all made sense. "It was _you_! You teleported me here! But how...?"

"If you can manage to beat me in a duel, I just might tell you. But only might, as there's no guarantee I'll tell you much of anything." Luckily, I was able to teleport away before he slashed his sword down onto the rock, cutting right through it as if it were butter. The rock I teleported behind made me in his line of sight, though. Fortunately, he still didn't know that Mira was there with me. Grabbing onto Mira's arm, I teleported away just as Elementia sent a wave of fire cutting through the snow at high speed.

"You'll have to fight me at some point! You can't keep teleporting away, Legend."

"Quit calling me that! You want a fight?" I had to come up with a way to keep Mira safe, without letting Elementia know that she was there. And if I came out behind a rock, he'd probably slice it up. Even if he didn't, the risk of something happening to Mira was too great. Besides, without my radiating body heat, she'd freeze to death within minutes without me going to check up on her, which would expose her.

"Oh, yes please! Come out so I can end you once and for all!" He called, slashing away at rocks.

I had an idea, but it was impractical. It involved the heat range of my flames, but I wasn't sure if it could be pulled off. I didn't have much meditation training prior to this, so I was going off of pure luck, which was risky and dangerous, and I was practically playing with Mira's life. Sharing Mira my idea, she agreed that it was risky, but still our only option. Stepping forward, I flamed up my body and prepared a sword, knowing that this was a fight to the death. That it was for real.

"So the hero rises courageously, to fight the bad guy! And look, he's so fired up, he's literally flaming! How cool, Legend. Now, let's dance."

That name was taunting me, and I hated it. I began thinking that he knew about my realization and was just being an annoying prick about it, but I hated the name.

"I told you... _not to call me that!_ " Rushing at Elementia with my sword formed, the flames clashed, with Elementia's proving to be the stronger one. He remained stagnant, with his sword only held up to block. The force pushed me back, but I quickly flipped around to land on my feet and charge in for another attack. But no matter which way I slashed, Elementia blocked every single incoming attack, even jabs, which he countered by jabbing at me himself. All this he did without even moving his feet at all from their current position.

"Alright, time to take it up a notch..." Using Shadow Switch, I dropped into his shadow, despite him being all that, but the moment I dropped into the ground, he moved his arm upward and forced me out of his shadow.

"The fuck...?!" I flamed up again, not forgetting Mira, and made the flames even hotter. I dodged an incoming slash, but was hit by an unexpected jab.

"Have you forgotten? I control the energy around here. You never learn, do you?"

"Wait, then how far was this mountain from where I was? Obviously your Magic Energy range is pretty freakin' far, considering you could reach me from all the way down there."

"Well, as amazing as I truly am, as I've so reluctantly admitted before, even my Magic has its limits. Since reaching my limit, I've not been able to break it, so I seem to be at my full potential. Don't make me utter that again, you incompetent maggot!" He slashed almost angrily at me, but visibly calmed down as if remembering that he had to control his temper.

"Hey, you chose to say that, so you can't call me incompetent. And besides, I'm not incompetent." _I just found one of your weak points, that's all._

"Either way, as long as you remain within my large radius, any use of Magic can be detected and controlled by me. So if you decide to use your teleportation move, I can choose where to send you, if I know your general location."

"But you were doing that anyway. I tried teleporting out of this place, but I only teleported a few meters away. So don't give me that I'm-all-powerful-and-still-didn't-know-where-you-were bullshit."

"I believe I know exactly what words I utter from my mouth, thank you very much. That was not my doing, maybe you're drunk or something and used the wrong move. Even so, now you can't escape."

"Also, you never answered my question because you were too concerned with being all high and mighty, 'oh, I'm too powerful and awesome to admit that I have my limits.' Where the hell even are we? I never found out what this place is."

"Well, take a look around you. It's a mountain, yes? It's the summit, yes? There's your answer. You're at the summit of a tall mountain. End of story, now stay still so I can kill you!" I was barely able to dodge a huge slew of slashes from Elementia. Flames danced in majestic X shapes before my eyes as I continued sidestepping to avoid them. Even if it was made of fire, it still could cut me for some reason. My training really _was_ not enough. With all this heat, I had hoped that Mira would be okay, but I was afraid that she had frozen to death already. I stepped a little closer to Mira's hiding place, and heated up a bit more. To my relief, I heard her slightly hiss and whisper, "Hot!" However, this also gave away her hiding place.

"Who's there? Did you bring someone with you? Where are they?!" I teleported to Mira's hiding place and grabbed her by the hand, leading her to the edge of the summit. It was an almost vertical dive down, and pretty far at that to reach the cloud layer. It made me question how we were able to breathe, but I left that to Elementia.

"Wait, what are you doing?" said an unsure Mira.

"What do you think? We're gonna jump! We have to. It's the only way." As cliche as that sounded, I did actually have a plan in mind. "Trust me." I looked Mira in the eyes and she nodded, then we jumped. In free fall, I quickly Summoned Fearow's Pokéball and soon we were flying away on Fearow. But Elementia hadn't given up, as he began shooting beams out of his sword at us, but Fearow was able to dodge them all swiftly and I commanded him to fly off into the distance, far away from the mountain. Elementia had a spell to allow him to fly, but we were far enough that the strange energy fluctuations were gone, so I proceeded to grab Mira's arm and wrapped my arm around Fearow's strong neck, and opened a portal immediately in front of us. And as the familiar Magnolia surrounded us and the portal closed, and Fearow took a sharp maneuver upward to avoid a collision with the building in front of us, I was able to breathe a sigh of relief, and whooped for joy, knowing that my plan worked. After a bit, Fearow's speed dropped and we were able to land safely.

Once our hearts slowed to a normal pace, Mira began questioning.

"What in the world was that? Who in the world was that?" she cried.

"Promise you won't tell anyone about it, first of all," I said.

"O-okay, I promise."

"You swear not to tell a soul?"

"Yes, but why?"

I sighed and a shiver ran down my spine. "Because many reasons. Some of those reasons are personal, but I trust you enough." I looked at Mira, who nodded, then out into the distance. "Essentially, I'm destined to fight him. Since he killed my father, I want to kill him with my own hands. The bonds that descendants share with their parents are beyond any other, at birth. And, if anyone at the guild found out, they'd try to fight Elementia with me, knowing that crazy bunch. They'd wanna battle Elementia by themselves, but in reality, they wouldn't be able to defeat him at a fraction of his power. He's just too strong, especially for me. Even Makarov or Laxus or whoever the strongest wizard is in Fairy Tail, would be killed within the first few minutes of battling him. And either way, it's not them he wants to fight. Anyone who gets in his way is as good as dead. He wants to kill me so that my father's and the Legion's legacy will die out with me. But it's just..." I stopped for a moment and tried forming my words. "... I feel like my destiny will be more than I originally bargained for, that I'm not just destined to fight Elementia. That there's something greater, and I'll have to reach their level somehow."

"I can't imagine someone being larger than that..." said Mira as we entered my house. "Still, I promise not to tell anyone. I understand if you're sacrificing yourself for everyone, but think about it this way; if you're the only one who can defeat him and he defeats you, then who'll be there to fight him? You said it yourself, that not even Laxus or Master can defeat him. So then who can but you?"

I stood in the doorway to the bathroom with my toothbrush in my mouth. "Well, it's all or nothing, to be honest," I mumbled through a mouthful of toothpaste. Mira didn't have an overnight bag or anything, but she just used an extra toothbrush that I happened to have (don't worry, it was new). I didn't bother to fold up the blankets on the couch that she used last time, so they were still there.

"You're willing to risk your life for so many people..." As she spoke she hugged me, but a bit longer than usual. "I couldn't imagine losing you... you're too important to be lost. But I can't help if it's what must be done. If it's destined, all I can do is cheer you on. But what if you _do_ lose? What's to become of the world?"

I stood in the doorway to my bedroom and glanced over my shoulder at her. "Trust me, _that won't happen_." This was said with such intensity that Mira visibly jumped. "Try not to think of it too much, okay? Well then, goodnight, Mira."

"O-oh-okay. Goodnight, Vincent. My hero." From this I couldn't help but crack a little smile, but Mira didn't see, as I had already closed the door to my bedroom.

xxxx

"How dare he manage to get away from me... ah! And looks who's right on the clock!" As I came to in the dream, the shadow of Elementia stood over me, generating his sword. Quickly, I rolled to dodge, leaving little space between the sword swing and my back. "Hmph. If you even want to stand a chance against me, you'll have to train that pathetic excuse for a sword you have. It doesn't even have a distinct shape!"

He was right, as the sword that materialized in my hand was nothing more than a hot mess. No pun intended. Flames licked wildly all over, hardly looking anything like a longsword. If anything, it looked more like a feather duster. A really big feather duster. His, on the other hand, actually resembled that of a sword; the flames waved closer to the center and in a very orderly fashion without looking too unnatural.

"Haha! Now you realize the difference between our blades? However, another thing you may not have realized... is this!" With a heavy swing, he sliced my blade right in half. I had to duck in time, almost forgetting what was happening. "Hahaha! My sword, being stronger than yours, is like comparing an army tank to a little car that those tykes play with!"

"Yeah, and me compared to you is like comparing a pile of shit to an even bigger pile of shit. Shut the hell up."

"But you admit that you're shit then! How about that! I didn't think you'd have the courage to admit it!"

"You just go ahead and gloat about it, why don't you," I muttered as the flames reformed into a swo- er... feather duster. "But in the meantime, I'll be taking my revenge for my father, another thing you continue to gloat about, fucker. I'll tear off your head, I swear. A day will come when I take your head, Elementia."

"And yet, you're still stuck doing this, you weakling! Tell me, if you plan on killing me, then how do you plan on finding me first?" That was a question I had never pondered to myself, even though Mira and I had just escaped from the dimension a few hours before.

"Well, I asked you before, and you gave me a vague answer, 'you're on top of a mountain, incompetent, blehblehbleh.' Why not go ahead and give me an intelligent answer instead of dodging the fucking question?"

"Ha! You expect to give me to give you a straight answer?"

"Ha! Yes I do! What're you, fucking stupid?"

"Well, you'll have to defeat me first, or find out yourself!" Elementia slashed his flaming sword at me, but I was able to use what solid flames I could to break the momentum of each swing, reforming my swo- er, feather duster, each time he cut it in half.

"The exact answer I expected, for some reason. Why am I not surprised... "

"Oh, what? Are you psychic now? Have you unlocked some special ESP?" mocked Elementia as he jabbed towards me. I yelped as the blade stabbed me a few times, carving deep, burnt gashes in my skin.

"Here's what you couldn't have foreseen." Elementia held up his blade and it began to glow blueish white. Suddenly, the flames blasted away, revealing a new blade made out of crystalline ice, in which he tested the strength of on me. With just a few slashes, the ice sword not only cut deeply, but once it did, ice began to encompass my entire arm and wherever the cuts were; on my chest, my legs, my abdomen. Luckily, I was able to melt the ice as soon as it began to spread, with only my body heat.

"I can also..." Elementia' sword began to glow once again, this time a forest green white light. The ice melted away, revealing a sword made out of wood.

"Well, in this case, I have the advantage! Fire burns wood!" If I can get close to his sword, I can... HURK- As I tried approaching the sword, it branched out, quite literally, stabbing me in many places. I was impaled many times, and afterward, you could mistake me for a sponge with so many holes in me.

"That's quite... urg... enough. Let's tone it down, while I do this!" I unleashed a Mega Flame Ball from my hands towards the sword, but with a single slash, Elementia sent the Flame Ball back at me. Luckily my own attack didn't do any damage to me, and I was able to cancel it out.

"But wait, wasn't that supposed to burn? What the hell happened?"

"Ha! Have you heard of laminate? I suppose not, you incompetent fool," he mocked further still. "Even if you were to understand, your attack wouldn't have worked anyway."

"I know what laminate is, you dick, but how the fuck was I supposed to know that your sword could do that?"

"How could you not? My sword can do anything! There's nothing I can't do! For example..." Elementia's sword began to glow light gray, and the wood peeled away to reveal a jagged sword made of stone. It was almost as if the blade was serrated, with many small, razor sharp pointed stones along the edges.

"How dare you doubt me, and how dare you doubt my power!" yelled Elementia as he jabbed his sword at me, slashed, swung every which way, battering me and cutting deep, painting me red. By the time he was done, I could barely move.

"And that's what you get for doubting me, such a great and powerful being." I didn't really hear anything after that besides the howl of the blizzard above me. But when I looked up, staring me straight in the face...

... was Mirajane, standing by the side of my bed! Now, still half asleep, I hadn't realized that I was awake, and I raised my flaming arm up at Mira.

"W-wait! Vincent, what are you doing? You're awake!" Mira almost shouted at me, causing me to dissipate the flames and put my arm down, and realize that I was awake.

"Hnngh... goonrng, Mrjane..." I mumbled.

"Uh... should I be concerned about that...?"

"Hnh...? Oh..." I did a very long yawn. "It's just a dream. That creepy guy from before shows up in my dreams sometimes and tries to kill me... it's not a big deal, just same old stuff."

"What? How is that not a big deal?! He's trying to kill you! Don't you have at least an ounce of care about something like that? Come on!" Now Mira _was_ yelling.

"Why're you yelling...?" I sat up and rubbed my eyes.

"Because you don't even care about your own life! I'm concerned, not just about you, but also for you, because well, you seem to not care about your own life! But I do! I do..." A stream of tears leaked down Mira's face.

"Hey, hey... don't cry, even if it is for me. I understand that you care about me. I just worded it wrong, because I didn't take your point of view into consideration. What I meant is that it's a dream, and he can't harm me. Look, he stabbed me, uh... I can't even count how many times, but there were a lot of stab wounds in me. Now they're not there. See?" I slid off my shirt to reveal my clean chest, no blood, no injuries, no... actually, there were scars; the three on my abdomen from when that demon on the volcano slashed me.

"Wow..." Mira stared at my chest, eyeing me up and down.

"Hey... I don't like when people stare," I broke the awkward silence.

"But it's alright if I do, isn't it?" Mira looked at me with a precious face, one that I could not say no to.

"Er... hmph, fine. I suppose so. It's not like I'm super muscular or anything..." I mean, I wasn't buff like Bruno of the Kanto/Johto Elite Four, but I guess I had something. That reminded me that I needed to visit home again. Suddenly I had a feeling of homesickness, and though I could return home at any time, seemed so distant and... just tedious. No, not tedious, that's not the right word... the thing was, I was a part of a guild, and I had things I had to do, monster slaying and shit.

But something else bothered me, and that was that Elementia was pretty much unstoppable. And unless I seriously improved... I would never be able to save the world. At the stage I was at, hardly able to withstand the power of my second evolution, it was all or nothing.

And I would not settle with nothing.


End file.
